


Lokiskind

by yumekuimono



Series: Lokiskind [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, Agender Character, Asexual Character, Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers (2012), DID I MENTION THE FLUFF?!, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, I just want them to be happy, Intersex Loki, M/M, Magic, Marriage Proposal, Mpreg, Pregnancy, but also sorta not really because, misuse of Norse mythology, with a sprinkling of feels and issues for realism's sake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 18:41:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 33,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9084952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yumekuimono/pseuds/yumekuimono
Summary: Tony never expected to be a parent, but when Loki gets the chance to reunite with his children with another on the way, he does the only thing he can think of. Turns out that while they might be unconventional, and certainly unexpected in the way they were brought together, things like family, love, and belonging are exactly the same.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I read [Fortuitous Revenge](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2765168) and [Lost Boys](http://archiveofourown.org/works/453030) and immediately needed more of Loki getting to raise his children and be happy, and since he is my baby whom I will protect, I wrote a thing.
> 
> There is one sex scene, because they wanted to and I couldn't stop them (sorry!), but it's not explicit, so consider this your warning.
> 
> Enjoy!

Tony was bored out of his mind, so he was texting Pepper, despite the fact that his CEO was a busy woman who probably did not have time to listen to his whining.

‘pep’

‘pep.’

‘pep, theyre making me listen to a briefing on ocean currents’

‘what the hell is my life anymore that i have to put up with this’

‘ud think coulson would have other things to worry about than the goddamn ocean’

‘i know namor’s been a nuisance lately but still’

‘“abnormal deep ocean currents” pep, what could it mean?? besides that this is not my job’

When she finally texted him back, ‘I have a meeting on changing the tax year end of SI’s latest acquisition for you instead if you’d like’ he stopped bothering her.

Loki’s last appearance had only been two weeks ago and already the quality of villainy and general threats to the peace had taken a sharp downward turn. That battle had been a good one. Interesting. Dare he say fun? Which was only because Loki wasn’t really evil so much as out to antagonize some people for the hell of it and Tony could appreciate that. The trickster god was by far his favorite supervillain, and it wasn’t just because they were sleeping together. He missed Loki, even if he’d only admit to it out loud because he was now having to sit through sub-par briefings instead.

The ocean current situation continued to develop, as he was unwillingly informed, for another two weeks, and then Tony returned to his penthouse one day to find a small child standing in the middle of his floor looking bewildered. His sodden clothes looked like something out of a Renaissance fair, and he was creating a puddle on the stone despite there not being a trail of water anywhere else. Weirdly, Tony recognized it as the spot Loki had been smashed into a crater by the Hulk, although he wasn’t sure why he was certain of the location years after the fact.

“Um,” he said and the child jumped, turning to face him. “Who are you and how did you get here?”

“I am looking for my Mama.”

Tony blinked. “Sorry, kid, no mothers here. Just me.” He hadn’t even slept with anyone in the time since Loki had gone, and before that…he wasn’t sure.

The kid frowned. “But he was here, I know he was.” He sniffled, and then shivered.

Tony had no clue what to do. “Huh, well, I don’t know who your mother is, but why don’t we get you dried off and I can help you look for her?”

He took the kid into the bathroom and helped towel him off, hanging his clothes over the side of the shower door.

“Okay, first things first I guess, what’s your name?”

The kid’s head poked out from the fluffy towel he was swathed in. “Jor,” he said, pronouncing it like ‘your.’ That was certainly unusual, which would help in finding the kid in a database.

“Hi, Jor. I’m Tony. You got a last name?”

“I don’t like it.” Tony wondered if he was running away from an abusive father.

“Yeah? Mine’s inconvenient too sometimes.” Looking down at the kid wrapped in nothing but a towel still, Tony frowned. “JARVIS, do we have any clothes that will fit him?”

“You might try a t-shirt from MIT, Sir. One not stolen from Colonel Rhodes.”

Jor scanned the ceiling with interest. “What’s that?”

“JARVIS is an AI—an artificial intelligence—that I made.” He struggled with how to explain it in a way Jor would understand. He didn’t look to be more than ten. “He’s like a person, except that he lives in computers. He’s in charge of running the Tower. If you need help you can ask him.”

Fortunately, Jor seemed to accept this, nodding.

They trooped up to Tony’s bedroom next, where he rooted around in the back of his closet among the things he never wore anymore but hadn’t bothered to throw out. He did find one of his old MIT shirts, which drooped off of Jor’s frame and came halfway to his knees, despite the fact that Tony had been fourteen and small for his age when he went to college. He rolled up the legs of an extra pair of sweatpants too for good measure. Jor still seemed cold, so they traded the damp towel for a blanket, which trailed over the floor behind him as they went back downstairs.

“How old are you, Jor?” Tony asked, setting him on a barstool. He found milk in his refrigerator and put a mug of it in the microwave to warm.

The kid frowned. “What year is it?”

Well, that was worrying. “2015.”

“That doesn’t help. I was eight before.” He looked eight, as far as Tony could tell, but it wasn’t like he knew much to tell either way.

“Before?” Tony handed him the mug. “Be careful, it’s hot.”

Jor nodded, curiously sniffing the milk and then taking a sip. “Before I was taken away from my Mama and went to sleep.”

“Uh, okay. What do you remember from before?”

Jor frowned into his mug, already half-empty. “I was playing outside with my brother, and then some warriors came and they hurt me, even though, even though Mama said we’d be safe if we stayed out of Valaskjalf, and…” His mouth quivered, and he sniffled, blinking rapidly. Tony panicked a little.

“It’s okay. It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want.” Jor sniffed again, wiping at his eyes. “Listen, um, a bunch of warriors live in this Tower, but we’re good. We try to help people like you, okay? We’ll keep you safe and help you find your Mom, I promise.”

Jor nodded.

“I’m gonna take you to see my friend Bruce, okay? He’s a doctor.”

Bruce determined that Jor was healthy, and agreed that he seemed to be about eight. “How did you say you got into Tony’s penthouse?”

“When I woke up, I started searching for my Mama, and this was the closest I could find, so I arrived here.” Jor seemed completely nonchalant about it.

“I walked in and he was just standing there dripping on my floor,” Tony added. “JARVIS, did you get any scans of his arrival?”

“I did, Sir. Would you like me to send the data to you?”

“Yeah, you do that, J.”

They took Jor up to the common floor from Bruce’s lab so the kid could explore and they could talk about him. Tony filled Bruce in on everything he’d heard so far, including the fact that Jor seemed to consistently refer to his mother as a ‘he.’

“Is there still any of that water?”

“Yeah, there should still be a puddle on the floor, and there’s a damp towel in my laundry. Why?”

“I’m going to collect a sample. Call it a hunch.”

Bruce left, and Tony wandered awkwardly over to where Jor was staring fascinated out of the window. “Whatcha looking at?”

Jor turned to look up at him with wide eyes. “Where is this?”

“Manhattan,” Tony told him, confused. When that didn’t produce any recognition, he tried, “New York City.” Still nothing. “Uh, the United States of America. No? Earth?”

“This must be very far from home,” Jor said, looking back out the window, down at the traffic. “But if Mama was here, it can’t be too far. It looks interesting here.”

“Uh, that’s…good, I guess.”

The closest thing JARVIS could find to the readings from when Jor first appeared in the Tower were the ones from when Loki would teleport in, which was interesting but not super helpful, as Tony hadn’t figured out how to track that sort of transport and he couldn’t tell his team about it since he’d been keeping his trysts with the god a secret. Bruce came back with the tests on the water Jor had had on him and said it matched samples from the very bottom of the ocean, though he couldn’t pinpoint where. They ran searches through every population database JARVIS could get to, but the kid didn’t show up in any of them, and he still refused to give them a last name. Whenever he talked about where he’d been or anything ‘before’ he was vague about details and names, aside from his own and the one mention of ‘Valaskjalf.’ They didn’t want to push him on it either, as it became clear that he’d either been comatose or was amnesiac, or else had some similar trauma. Bruce finally just Googled ‘Valaskjalf’ and discovered it was a place in Asgard, but when they asked, Jor was very adamant that he was not from Asgard, claiming it was a terrible place and he hated it. Whether or not he was Aesir was a little less clear. There wasn’t much they could do with this information either, though, since Thor was off visiting Jane and then would actually be in Asgard and wouldn’t be back for a while.

Aside from the mystery of who he was and where he’d come from, Jor otherwise seemed to be a normal little boy. He met the rest of the team and displayed an outgoing personality, winning over even Natasha, whose normal attitude towards children was ‘will happily save them from danger and speak on behalf of their rights but does not actually want to interact with them in any way.’ Despite not showing recognition even for planet Earth, Jor had very little trouble reading English. He taught himself the rules to a bunch of the board games they had in the rec room and easily roped other people into playing with him, quickly discovering a love of games that involved spatial reasoning and visual patterns. He was generally polite and well-behaved, in the reserved manner of a child surrounded by unfamiliar adults, the only incident otherwise being on his first night in the Tower when he wanted to sleep in the penthouse, and Tony was less than comfortable with that idea. They compromised by having him sleep on Clint’s floor, a level below, and securing a promise from JARVIS that Jor would also be alerted should the AI detect readings similar to his arrival. The third time Tony found him curled up asleep on the penthouse couch in the morning, he finally caved and let the kid go to sleep there in the first place. Jor never teleported again, or displayed any sort of magic where they could see, and Tony didn’t say anything. Before any of them had quite realized, his presence had nearly become a regular part of the Tower.

 

Loki had appeared again, down by the wharfs this time, and was throwing around sand and anything not properly nailed down with powerful gusts of wind, standing in the eye of the storm and grinning madly. Tony was dodging and weaving and very carefully aiming to miss Loki but not have it look like that was what he was doing, and also having the time of his life. He loved flying the suit and he loved a challenge that made him actually focus, and he was definitely going to love what came after the battle when everyone thought that Loki had gone—and so he may have been a little distracted the first time JARVIS chimed urgently in his ear.

“Mama!”

Somehow, the cry rang across the battlefield, and as one the Avengers turned to look at its source. Jor had appeared and was running down the street, straight towards Loki. Small pieces of debris bounced away from him, a shimmering silver aura becoming visible where they made contact and were deflected.

“What the hell—”

“How’d he get—”

“Somebody grab—”

“Oh shit—”

Before anyone could alter course enough to make a move, Loki turned, and then he too had seen the child. Everything stopped. Captain America bowled into a large chunk of rubble that was now suddenly hanging stationary in his path, suspended in midair. The rest of the Avengers also drew to a halt. The only thing moving on the street was Jor. They watched and held their breaths, waiting to see what would happen. Jor threw himself at Loki, and everything fell to the ground as the god caught him. Hugging the child tightly, Loki sank to his knees. Warily, the team edged closer, and then halted once again in surprise. The god was rocking slightly, face buried in Jor’s neck and murmuring words too quiet for them to make out. Then Jor wriggled and for a moment Loki had a large silver serpent wrapped around his torso. They could see his face now, poleaxed and blinking back stunned tears. Then the eight year old child was back, and Loki held him closer, one hand on the back of his head, before drawing back with a worried frown and checking him over, running hands along his arms and face.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Mama, I’m fine.”

Seeming to accept this, Loki broke out in a relieved smile, brushing Jor’s hair back with one hand. “Alright.” Then he gathered Jor back into his arms and stood, the child clinging to his side like a long limbed koala. Catching sight of the Avengers, Jor waved.

“Mama, these are my friends!”

Loki smiled at him fondly. He seemed entirely different with the child in his arms. “Is that so?”

Jor nodded. “They took care of me while I was waiting for you.”

Loki looked back at the Avengers ranged in front of him. “It seems that I am in your debt.”

Steve stepped forwards. “I think right now we’d all just like an explanation.”

Hugging Loki’s neck, Jor announced happily, “This is my mama! I told you I was trying to find him.”

Looking at the both of them, the resemblance was rather obvious. Jor had Loki’s jet black hair, and though his eyes were a bluer shade of green and his face and ears more pointed, the similarities were definitely there. Especially in the smiles the two of them couldn’t seem to suppress.

“Yes, how did you find me?” Loki asked…his child, apparently.

“I was sleeping underwater and then I woke up so I followed your magic, which is how I found Tony because I ended up in his tower. I think I had a dream about Grandmother, and that’s why I woke up.”

Loki’s eyebrows raised. “You dreamed of Grandmother?”

Jor frowned. “I think so. You were there, too, and Fenrir, and Sleipnir but he wasn’t a horse. I still knew who he was, though, and there was a lady who looked like you but half of her was blue and she had antlers, I think. She was pretty.”

Loki’s eyes were wide. “I see.”

At some point the Hulk had shifted back and now Bruce spoke up. “Wait, so does this mean Jor is really _Jormungandr_ , as in the Midgard Serpent?”

The lack of Hulk had revealed Thor standing on his other side, returned from Asgard just in time for the battle, and Jor now exclaimed, “Uncle Thor!”

“Jormungandr!” the thunder god boomed, grinning, answering one part of Bruce’s question.

Squirming out of Loki’s arms, Jor skipped over to Thor, who picked him up and spun around, both of them laughing. Loki watched them anxiously as he replied to the rest.

“Yes. Jormungandr was bound by Odin to the form of a serpent and cast into the waters of Midgard, where he has remained for the past thousand years.”

He took Jor’s hand when the child returned to his side, drawing him protectively close.

“Isn’t there some sort of prophecy that says if he lets go of his own tail, it’ll cause the end of the world? And that he’ll end up fighting Thor?”

Loki looked supremely unimpressed. “There have been many prophecies about Ragnarok, and your mythology is hardly an authoritative source.”

Jor leaned away from Loki then, tugging at his hand. “Mama, why is your magic funny?”

Loki smiled down at his son. “Because you are going to have another sibling soon, and my magic is helping them to grow.”

“You are pregnant?” Thor exclaimed. “Congratulations, brother!”

Loki shot him an irritated look over Jormungandr’s head, but didn’t say anything about Thor calling him ‘brother.’

“Well, there goes my question about why the kid keeps calling him ‘mama’,” Clint muttered, “and now I have several more that I don’t want to know the answers to.”

“How far along are you?” Thor was still beaming.

“Six weeks.”

Tony was suddenly _very_ glad for the suit because otherwise he might have ended up on his ass. As it was, he felt the blood drain from his face and then he flipped his faceplate up and gave Loki his best impression of Pepper’s ‘we are talking about this later’ look. The god glanced at him and dipped his chin discreetly. The bastard.

“Well, as pleasant as this has been,” Loki announced, “I would like some time with my son that is not standing around in the street.” He waved his free hand and the scattered debris sorted itself back into its former condition of intact urban landscape. “Do feel free not to come looking for us.” And then the two of them disappeared.

“Well, that was surprisingly civilized.”

“At least he cleaned up after himself this time.”

 

Two weeks of alternating giddy shock, anger, and trying not to think about it later, a piece of parchment appeared on Tony’s workbench in a ball of emerald fire with a note stating that Jormungandr wanted to say goodbye to the Avengers before he and Loki left the realm and asking for safe passage for them to visit the Tower. Another note followed after, addressed specifically to Tony and reading simply, ‘I suppose you will want an explanation, as well.’ He scrunched that one up and stuffed it into his pocket before taking the other note and calling the Avengers together on his floor.

They stared down at the parchment sitting on the coffee table before Thor finally said, “I have not seen my nephew for a thousand years. I would like the chance before Loki takes him away.”

“Can we trust him in the Tower?” Natasha asked.

“Loki would not risk harming his child, especially not now they have been reunited.”

“Why were they separated?” Steve asked. “I mean, I don’t know how Asgardians age, but Jormungandr looks pretty young.”

Thor frowned. “It was the Allfather’s decision. There were…concerns about Loki’s children because they were quite powerful, even at very young ages, and because their fathers were unknown. I doubt he will be taking Jormungandr and his unborn anywhere Asgard could find them.”

The Avengers shared glances among themselves.

“I think we should give them a chance,” Steve said.

Tony put on his best ‘well I don’t give a fuck’ voice. “If they break anything I’m making _you_ pay for it.”

After that, agreement followed from the rest of the team. Then they all stared down at the note some more.

“Alright,” Steve asked. “How do we, uh, communicate this to Loki?”

“Don’t look at me. It’s not like there’s a ‘return to sender’ option on messages delivered to my workshop via fireball.”

“If I might borrow a pen?” Thor asked.

Bruce and Natasha both offered him one. Taking Natasha’s, Thor knelt, pulling the parchment closer to carefully write out, ‘The Avengers grant safe passage to the penthouse of Avengers Tower for the durashon of thier visit to,’ followed by two sets of runes that Tony assumed spelled out ‘Jormungandr Lokisson’ and ‘Loki Laufeyson,’ below the original message. As soon as he was done, the parchment consumed itself in green fire. They blinked down at the coffee table, empty of even a scorch mark. In the next moment Loki himself appeared in the penthouse, parchment in one hand and Jormungandr’s in the other.

“My thanks,” he smirked.

Jor immediately came over to them, talking excitedly, and Tony used the distraction to drag Loki into his bedroom and shut the door.

“What the actual fuck,” were the first words out of his mouth as he rounded on the god.

“Tony—” Loki started, but the inventor cut him off.

“That’s my kid, isn’t it? You’re pregnant with my kid.”

“Yes.”

“Were you planning on telling me?”

Loki looked uncomfortable. “No,” he admitted.

“ _No?_ So what? What was I in all of this? A fucking—sperm donor?”

“ _No_ ,” Loki insisted. “I chose you to father my child for the same reasons I chose your bed in the first place.”

“But they weren’t good enough to actually _tell_ me I had a kid?”

“I did not think you wanted—”

“You didn’t _think_ — Jesus, Loki, just ‘cause I never thought about having a kid doesn’t mean I don’t wanna be involved or at least _know_ if I did.”

“Your lifestyle—”

“ _Screw_ that. I can change my lifestyle. The fact that _I have a kid_ isn’t ever going to change.”

Loki flinched, but Tony plowed on.

“So, so what? You were gonna show up here, mess with us a bit, let me fuck you again, and then just—just _disappear_ off the fucking map without telling me _anything?_ ”

That got a rise out of Loki, setting his eyes ablaze as he snapped, “I have lost four children to Odin already. Now that I am free from him I do not care what I might have to do but _I am_ _not_ losing another one!”

“So have them here,” Tony yelled back. “Have your kid here and let me be a parent and anyone who doesn’t want to fight Odin for my kid just because it also happens to be yours can get the fuck out of my Tower.”

He was breathing hard and glaring, and meanwhile Loki had one hand over his mouth and the other pressed against his lower abdomen, looking like he might cry. Tony was not good at people crying in front of him.

“Oh. Uh. Come on, come here.” Awkwardly, he pulled Loki into a hug.

The god returned it, heaving out a shuddering breath. After a moment, he asked against Tony’s shoulder, “Do you mean that?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do. You let me stew with that revelation for two weeks, you asshole. I want…I want to be a part of this.”

“Tony… _thank you._ ”

Tony shifted a bit. “You don’t— I mean, I’m not really, um. It’s not—”

Loki pulled back enough to press a finger against Tony’s lips, a small amused smile playing around his mouth. “None of that. Thank you, Tony.”

This time he shut the inventor up by kissing him.

When they pulled apart though, Loki was frowning. “I have reason to believe I may be able to free my other children. I am taking Jormungandr to stay with his sister Hela while I try. If I succeed, I will have three young boys to care for in addition to the baby.”

“They can stay here. Of course they can,” Tony said immediately. He raised his eyebrows. “They’ve been separated from you for what, a thousand years? I can’t even imagine, Loki. I want to come with you.”

“Tony, I’m going to be sneaking into Asgard.”

“So? I’ve always wanted to see other planets. And hey, I gotta keep my baby mama safe, right?” He poked Loki in the stomach.

The god snorted, catching his hand. “I want you to feel something.”

He slid Tony’s hand underneath his shirt, pressing it flat to his stomach and covering it with his own. A sensation not unlike mild pins and needles flooded Tony’s hand from where Loki’s was pressed against it.

“What—” Tony asked, and then he stopped because he could feel it. Beneath Loki’s skin he could feel a sort of faint humming glow, accompanied by a sensation of greenness that must be Loki’s magic. “Holy shit,” he breathed. “Loki, is that… That’s my kid, isn’t it? That’s our kid.”

Loki was beaming softly. “Yes.”

Tony stared up at him wide-eyed. “Can you feel this all the time?”

“Yes.”

“ _Fuck,_ ” he whispered. “I don’t even care about the absolute impossibility of what you’re doing right now, that’s our kid.” Looping his other arm around Loki’s neck, he pulled the god back into a kiss.

“Uh, so I might like you more than is strictly necessary for the whole enemies-with-benefits thing we had going,” he mumbled against Loki’s lips after a moment.

“I had noticed,” the god teased lightly. “The feeling is mutual.”

“Shut up,” he muttered, kissing Loki again.

When they finally drew back, fingers now linked, Tony said, “So. We’re going to get your other kids, and then you’re moving in here. You realize this means you’re going to have to stop causing such obvious and destructive mischief, right?”

Loki rolled his eyes, but he had the same fond smile he’d been getting whenever he mentioned his offspring. “I am sure four children will keep me busy enough.” Then he added, “I do not have much time, but I can delay my plans for a couple of days if you are to come to Asgard with me and the rest of your team to know that I will be joining you afterwards.”

Tony nodded. “Come back here tonight.”

They went back into the living area then to find Thor telling Jor a story. The child bounded over when he saw them.

“Mama, is it true you once made Uncle Thor wear a dress?”

Loki snorted in laughter. “Yes. He was a very pretty maiden.”

Jor giggled. He held up his arms in the universal sign for ‘pick me up,’ and Loki reached down for him. Between a combination of Jor jumping and Loki hefting him up, he got his legs wrapped around his mother’s waist, arms around his shoulders.

“You are getting to be too big for this,” Loki told his son.

Jor just pouted at him and turned into a silver serpent again, wrapping around Loki’s torso and onto his shoulder, tongue flicking out against his face. Loki huffed in a poor disguise for a laugh.

“Jormungandr, did you say goodbye to your Uncle Thor?”

Jor turned back into a child, this time on Loki’s other side. “Goodbye, Uncle Thor,” he said dutifully.

Thor had by this time come up to them from the couch. “Farewell, my nephew.” Looking to Loki, he opened his mouth, brow furrowing as if he was going to say something else.

Loki raised an imperious eyebrow at him.

Thor just shook his head, closing his mouth.

Loki turned back to Tony, giving him a nod. “Once again, my thanks.”

“Goodbye, Tony,” Jor put in, and Tony winked at him. Then he and his mother were gone from Avengers Tower.

“Ah, cheer up, Point Break,” Tony told Thor. “I’m sure you’ll see the kid again.”

The thunder god turned his morose look on Tony. “I am not so certain of that, friend Tony.”

He shrugged. “Jor seemed to like you. He’ll want to see you again eventually, and you really think Loki would deny his kid anything?”

“Perhaps.”

 

Loki walked back into the penthouse that evening bringing a wash of freezing air with him. He sat on the couch next to Tony, who was going through paperwork on his tablet for Pepper, and leaned over to kiss him.

“Jesus, you’re cold.”

“My daughter’s realm, though it is not a part of the frozen wastes of Niflheim, is closely bound to them. The living must go through the one to reach the other.”

“How does that make sense if each realm is pretty much its own separate planet?”

“Think of it rather like Valinor.”

Tony blinked. “Did you…did you just make a reference to Tolkien?”

“Yes.”

“You know what, I’m just gonna go with it.” He shut off the tablet and slid it onto the coffee table.

“Tony…” Loki suddenly seemed hesitant. “I want you to know about my children, before you make the decision to take them in. Who their fathers were, and…why they were taken from me.”

He reached out and slid his hand into Loki’s. “You don’t have to tell me.”

The god shook his head. “You should know.”

Tony squeezed his hand and Loki squeezed back, taking a deep breath before he began.

“My eldest son is Sleipnir. His father, Svadilfari, was my lover at the time, though no one at court knew this. Asgard gave to him an impossible task, to build defenses around the whole of the city in only three seasons with the help of no man. In order to aid him, I managed to persuade them to allow him his horse, and with it he was able to nearly complete the task. Asgard did not want to pay him for this, and so when my involvement was discovered, they forced me to find a way to prevent him from finishing in time. I…released a mare in heat and then freed his horse to chase after her, and then I took Svadilfari to bed with me. The work was not finished in time, and when they further found out that Svadilfari was not Aesir but a giant…” Loki’s voice went flat and distant, dropping in volume. “Thor killed him.” He took a breath and let it out in a shudder, his mouth pressing into itself for a moment, more openly upset than Tony had ever seen the god before. “I was so frightened when I found I was with child. But I could not help but love the life within me, and so I carried and bore Sleipnir in secret.

“I did eventually bring him to the court, but he was…not welcome. Sleipnir was my child, and possessed my magic. Matters became worse when he showed a talent for walking the paths of Yggdrasil among the Realms better than even my own. There were some who estimated the date of conception and rumors circulated that I had coupled with Svadilfari’s horse, who was known to be the fastest in the Nine Realms. A foal had in fact been sired on that night, and it is sometimes the way of magic to link events like that, so it may well be that Sleipnir received his talent from the stallion. In any case, I had no way of disproving these rumors without revealing the true circumstances of his birth. Eventually, the situation became such that Odin was swayed to action and he bound Sleipnir and the colt to a single form, resulting in an eight legged stallion that he bridled and rode throughout the Realms.” Loki let out a single sharp laugh. “I was told it was a _great honor_ to be the steed of Odin.”

Looking down at their joined hands, Loki continued, voice subdued. “I left Asgard after that, traveling throughout the Realms, though always I returned to visit my son when I could. I stayed the longest in Alfheim, studying magic there. I found that I liked it, for the Fae have an affinity for wild magic and a rather looser attachment to singular modes of appearance or shape. I was less out of place there than I was in Asgard. I was also still hurting from the absence of my child. The Elven harvest festivals are famous for their feasting and bonfires, and also for the exuberant and rather…carefree passions. Incidentally, they are also one of the times when the two courts may come together peacefully, and when wild magic runs the strongest. It was at one of these that I coupled with one of the dark fae and became pregnant with my son Fenrir, and then two years later with a light elf who fathered Jormungandr. That is all I know of them, other than that both were shapeshifters, as I am. My younger sons too may change their forms, and though they each possess only one other shape, it is immensely powerful.”

Loki sighed, pausing, and Tony realized that at some point he’d started stroking his thumb comfortingly over the god’s knuckles.

“Though I wish now things had been different, I could not stay away from Asgard forever. I longed to see my mother, and for my sons to meet their elder brother. I had even less time, once I returned. Given the abandon for which the Alfheim festivals are known, there was no way I could deny that I was the one to carry my sons, and that they were shapeshifters with only two forms merely inflamed the rumors that I had copulated in the form of a beast.” Loki’s lip curled faintly in disgust, either at the idea itself or the rumors, but when he continued it was with a sad smile. “What limits Fenrir and Jor have in shape they do not have in size, and so one of their favorite games was to see who could become larger. Asgard began to fear them. When next they played this game Odin bound them both to their second forms, and cast Jormungandr into the waters of Midgard. It took a dozen warriors and Odin himself to subdue Fenrir and chain him in a cavern deep below Asgard, though Tyr did lose his sword hand for it.” The smile this time was bitterly proud. “I fought as well, and for my efforts I was locked within my chambers with my magic restricted for a time, forbidden from ever seeking out my sons. Eventually I was married off to Sigyn, a lady of lesser nobility. I suppose the idea was that if I was so determined to have children I would do so with a lawful Aesir wife, and I did allow myself hope that I might thus keep them.

“Hela is my only child to whom I am father rather than mother, though in the end it did me little good. She was born with half her body appearing as any Aesir and half with skin of dark blue and an eye fully black. Sigyn left me then, claiming that my children would never be any more than monsters. When Odin saw he took Hela from my arms and cast her into Niflheim.” Loki’s voice wavered on the last and he paused, swallowing, then continued slowly. “I suppose…knowing that I am Jotun rather than Aesir has helped to explain my daughter’s appearance, and Odin’s reaction, though it has not made it easier to bear. To this day I do not know how I managed to travel from the Rainbow Bridge to my chambers, nor how long I stayed in my bed there before Frigga came to me and told me that all was not lost. I sought out my daughter and found her in the arms of Lady Death, chosen to be one of her servants. She was raised and now rules in Helheim as Queen of the Dead, guiding souls on their journey out of this world. Of all of my children her fate has perhaps been the kindest, and I have managed to visit her the most.”

Loki fell silent. His voice when he next spoke was barely above a hoarse whisper, and his grip on Tony’s hand tightened. The fingers of his other hand rested on his stomach over the unborn child in what was clearly a gesture of self-comfort. “I have never told anyone else, and Hela is the only other who knows, but…in the time since her birth…I became pregnant three more times. All of them I terminated. It was a kinder fate than what they would have received from Odin.”

Tony may have made a despairing noise as he pulled the god into a hug, holding on tightly. This time Loki did cry a little against his shoulder, small, choked sounds making it past his best efforts to contain them. Tony’s own throat felt constricted, and he had no clue what there possibly was for him to say even if he could speak. ‘I’m sorry’ just didn’t seem adequate enough for this. All he could do was hold on, and let himself be held, and rock them gently a little, trying to hold back his own tears. Eventually, Loki quieted, though he didn’t let go.

Tony rubbed his back, and finally had to ask, “Why the hell did you stay?”

Loki let out a noise against his shoulder that was half stifled sob and half bitter laugh, tinged faintly with hysteria. “I thought them my family. By the time of my fall, blood ties were the only thing keeping me in Asgard.” He let out a shuddering breath. “Much of my madness at that time came from the revelation that I was not related to them at all. I could have left _centuries_ ago.”

Again Tony had nothing he could say to that, continuing instead to rub Loki’s back in long strokes along his spine.

Shifting a little against him, Loki began to speak again. “I visited Hela as soon as I was able, afterwards, because she deserved to know the truth. She had known already, and kept Laufey in her halls that I might also speak to him.” He sighed. “I had been told that Laufey was my father because he was male, when in truth he is my mother. Jotun are commonly what you would call intersex, or genderfluid if they are shapeshifters. I would have been proud to have been his son. Instead, I was raised among the Aesir, and branded as _ergi_. I do believe it was even one of my titles when first we came to Midgard.”

Tony was admittedly lost by that last comment, but given the bitter self-depreciation with which Loki had said it, he had a feeling that asking would not be welcome, and for once he was resolved not to do it anyway. He might’ve been an asshole, but he was an asshole who happened to care about the god in his arms, and was also a little bit awed at how much vulnerability Loki was allowing him to see. Fortunately, Loki did answer his question after a moment with a weary sigh.

“ _Ergi_ , put simply, is any unmanly act done by a man, whether that is practicing sorcery or taking the passive part in bed.”

“You can be pretty demanding in bed, babe.” Before he could cringe at the immediate insensitivity of that, Loki huffed softly, some of his usual amusement showing through, before he continued.

“These things are looked down upon, but are not expressly taboo, else my lovers and the lovers of those like me would not be able to prove their own prowess.”

“Wait, you’re saying that the way to prove your masculinity in Asgard is to emasculate someone else? That’s fucked up.”

“There are many things wrong with Asgard, yes. Although that particular aspect was carefully kept out of open conversation in the highest reaches of the court. Odin himself is a powerful mage, but as king he holds the warrior class above all others, and Thor to be the ideal, and the rest of the realm naturally follows after him. I was already the adopted younger brother, but…well. I never did feel comfortable in what was supposed to be my home.”

Tony moved his hand up to card through Loki’s hair. After a moment he said quietly, “I get why you were so determined to keep this a secret, now. If I was at all still pissed at you, I’m not anymore. And I don’t care how old or powerful Odin is, if he tries anything like that again I will make a way to kill him.”

Loki laughed weakly. “You will have to get in line.”

“Best place to watch your back from, yeah?”

The god shifted again from where he had been mostly leaning against Tony to now embrace him fully, surprising the inventor a little with its intensity. “No one has ever done anything like this for me, Tony,” he whispered. “Even should I not recover Sleipnir or Fenrir, this means more to me than you can imagine.”

Tony blinked a little, and then stroked through his hair again. “Yeah… Yeah. C’mon. There’s a whole boatload of stuff we gotta do, but it can wait until tomorrow. Let’s just…let’s just go to bed, okay?”

Loki sniffed. “Yes.”

So Tony led the god up the stairs, where Loki crawled into bed after him and curled close around his back, one arm coming to rest over his side and link their fingers together. As much as he’d shared a bed with the god of mischief previously, he’d never really taken the time to appreciate it, too exhausted from other activities that had taken place there. It was pleasant, though, and Tony was reminded how much he liked the comforting intimacy of simply sleeping with another person. It occurred to him, somewhere on the floating edge of wakefulness, that possibly this was something that would occur every night from now on.

 

The contentment of the previous night continued in the morning as the two of them were woken by JARVIS reading out the date, time, and weather and went about their routines around each other. Somehow, it was only a little awkward, and more a lot strange that there was a drop dead gorgeous literal god in his bedroom and Tony didn’t want to bone him. For the moment, anyway. He wasn’t dead yet, but the point still stood. It was kinda nice, and all shockingly tame, at least until Tony was waiting for the coffee machine to percolate and Loki wrapped his arms around him from behind, chin digging into his shoulder and breath fanning distractingly across his neck. He poured himself his coffee when it was done and couldn’t resist a too-hot sip before he set it down and turned in Loki’s arms, and then he was being kissed senseless. And that was also nice. Very, very nice.

“I do rather prefer the taste of your mouth without coffee,” Loki smirked as he pulled back.

Tony laughed, hauling himself up to sit on the counter. “Good morning to you too.”

Picking his mug back up he watched as Loki managed to find a kettle in the back of one of his cabinets and some tea he hadn’t known he’d had. Sticking his nose in the box, Loki evidently decided that the tea was acceptable because he then proceeded to shove Tony down the counter by his hip to get at the mugs he was sitting in front of. The inventor kicked halfheartedly at him, protesting, but didn’t actually do much, preoccupied as he was with trying not to spill scalding coffee all over his lap. When they’d settled down again, he asked JARVIS for his schedule and the AI helpfully displayed a timetable for him.

“Miss Potts has required your presence at the investors’ meeting and strongly recommended you attend the R&D quarterly. She has also sent a reminder that the paperwork she sent you on Monday is to be completed by Friday evening at the latest and that if you do not get it in she will tie you to your office chair and watch as you sign.”

“Those were her exact words, weren’t they?”

“Yes, Sir.” JARVIS’ voice contained the blandest amusement.

He sighed. “Not fun kink, Pep.” Kicking a foot at Loki again, he asked, “Why can’t you ever attack on days when I _have_ meetings I can’t otherwise get out of, huh?”

“And become predictable?” the god asked, mock affronted.

Tony snorted. “Yeah, fine. Looks like I gotta abandon you for a couple of hours to do boring corporate things. You can entertain yourself while I do?”

“Of course. Much in this apartment will need to be changed if it is to be fit to accommodate me. Your selection of tea could be much improved, for a start.” Loki gave him a haughty look from over the rim of his own mug that was entirely bullshit.

“Just don’t destroy too much,” he laughed. “There are people who work hard for me to keep it bleeding edge.”

“Oh, three boys will cause much more destruction than me.”

“I’m looking forward to it.” When Loki raised eyebrows at him, Tony looked down into his coffee mug, feeling his cheeks heat. “I play at being a hero, and I help the team out and all, but it’s not always enough, you know? I mean, yeah, we save the world, but do we actually better people’s lives? I can throw all the money I want at people I’ll never meet, but at the end of the day it doesn’t really mean much to me personally. Don’t worry though, the shock of reality will set in soon enough.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, we need to figure out how to tell the rest of the Avengers. And I’ll have to explain all this to Pepper.”

They schemed over breakfast, and then Tony went to put on a business suit. He kissed Loki on his way out the door and may have arrived to the investors’ meeting with a smile that wasn’t entirely fake. He charmed the pants off them and didn’t even offend anybody, so much so that Pepper cornered him as he was waltzing out the door to head up to R&D.

“I’m perfectly fine, Pep. There’s a situation, but it’s a good one, I swear. You won’t even want to kill me over it. Well, actually, initial impressions may be at a fifty-fifty on the killing me front, but I’m confident further data will get it down to like twenty-eighty. I can’t explain now, but I will. Give me like, two days. At most.”

“I’m holding you to that, Tony.”

Predictably, he got caught up in R&D since they were having trouble integrating all of the features for the new StarkPhone while meeting their exceptional standards for memory and battery life. He was glancing through some of the source code as the meeting wrapped up when JARVIS chimed politely and reminded him that his presence was required upstairs. Flashing them all a brilliant smile and ignoring the undercurrent of intrigue at anything that could possibly pull him out of the coding zone, he swept out.

Back in the penthouse he was greeted with the sight of Loki contemplating a hallway that hadn’t previously existed, an unreadable set to his shoulders.

“Wow. How’d you do that?”

“It is an alternate dimension metaphysically located elsewhere within the branches of Yggdrasil, a portion of which is anchored here by means of several seals.” He gestured and five arcane-looking designs flared briefly green before fading out of sight again.

“It’s very…Ghibli.”

Loki raised an eyebrow at him.

“These movies Natasha watches. I’ll show you sometime, but we have to have subtitles because my Japanese isn’t quite that good and if we watch them in English Natasha _will_ know. Also, you’re telling me I have a dimensional portal in my living room. I am so getting you down in my lab and then I’m finding a way to drag all my scanners up here because otherwise that’s going to drive me insane.”

Loki just smirked at him, and then he sighed. “I do not actually know if I will succeed. I have reason to believe I may, but I am…not accustomed to optimism.”

Winding his arm around Loki’s waist, Tony said, “You have to try though, right? You already have Jor, and the baby, and they’re definitely staying here.” When Loki managed a smile at that, he tugged at him a little, away from the magical addition. “So come on then, the food’s probably already here.”

“It has just arrived, Sir,” JARVIS informed them.

“Thanks, J.”

He guided Loki into the elevator and out onto the common floor with a hand at the small of his back, arriving in the kitchen where the rest of the Avengers had been drawn by the smell of Vietnamese food just in time to hear Natasha ask, “Why is there enough for two of Thor?”

Then they all caught sight of the additional Norse god. “The hell are you still doing here,” Clint asked, pointed and suspicious.

“I asked him. He’s staying,” Tony stated, moving to pull the containers with the pho out of their plastic bags.

“Why?”

“Because the child I am carrying is Tony’s,” Loki answered.

A shocked silence descended, broken by Tony asking, “Bruce, pass me a couple of bowls?” and being handed them, and then Thor sweeping him into a bone-crushing hug.

“Congratulations, friend Tony! I was unaware of your relations.”

He coughed as all the air got squeezed out of him. “Yeah, thanks, big guy.”

“Thor, do not break the father of my child.”

The Thunderer put him down and Tony took a discreet step back. Glancing over at the rest of the still frozen team, he flapped a hand at them, deliberately nonchalant. “You  guys should eat. The food’s gonna get cold, and microwaving it really doesn’t do it justice, trust me.” Taking his own advice, he finished putting together bowls of soup for himself and Loki.

Seemingly at a loss for what else to do, they followed suit, settling around the table. Loki sampled a little of his pho and then all of the assorted condiments. When he made an appreciative face at the Sriracha, Tony passed him the jalapenos. Natasha was, of course, the first to recover, and had in fact spent more time looking thoughtful than shocked, though it was hard to tell with her.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Quite,” was Loki’s answer.

“I mean, it’s not like this was a one-time event,” Tony elaborated, garnishing his own bowl. “We knew what we were doing. Well, apparently I didn’t, but I yelled at him about it so it’s all good. Unless you were asking if I’m sure about having them stay, which is also yes because seriously Odin is a massive dick—sorry Thor—and I am not a fan of that. I mean, if you ask me in a couple days I’ll probably agree with you with regards to my sanity and decision-making skills, but you know, me and bad decisions—”

“You can shut up now, darling,” Loki interjected mildly, and Tony snapped his mouth shut before stuffing some noodles into it. They’d agreed to play up the obvious affection beforehand, but actually hearing Loki say that was something else.

“So, what?” Bruce asked. “You’re going to give up your career of destruction and chaos in favor of doing domestic with Tony Stark of all people?”

“ _Hey_ ,” he protested around his mouthful of noodles.

“No offense Tony, but it has to be asked, do you even do domestic, let alone children?”

Swallowing, he shrugged, raising his eyebrows at the other scientist. “I’m motivated to find out.”

While Bruce was looking suitably surprised and impressed, Loki added, “There is much I am willing to give up for my children.”

True to form, Natasha picked up on the dropped clues and asked pointedly, “A couple days?”

“Well, yeah. You think I wouldn’t let the rest of his kids stay too?”

“Loki?” Thor asked, confused.

“With Jormungandr returned to me, I have reason to believe I might retrieve Sleipnir and Fenrir as well.” Setting his chopsticks across the rim of his bowl, Loki managed to pull off a fair impression of looming despite the table and its half-eaten takeout between himself and his adoptive brother. “I am willing to set aside much of my anger towards you for the sake of my children, Thor, but do not think I have forgiven you, nor forgotten your role in their being taken from me.”

“I did not—”

“You did not raise a hand against them, that much is true, but did you ever once speak for your nephews when they were slandered for no fault of their own? You knew they had done nothing, knew how I loved them, but did you ever once protest their punishment at the hands of their supposed grandfather? You will _not_ hinder me in this.”

Abashed, Thor ducked his head. “I understand. I am sorry.”

Loki merely sniffed and returned to his food.

“If you don’t mind,” Steve spoke up a few minutes later, “why were your children taken from you, Loki?”

Expression carefully masked, the Trickster explained, “They were taken for the sole crime of being mine. My sons were trapped in the form of beasts, Sleipnir forced into servitude, and Jormungandr and Fenrir bound and sedated. My daughter, Hela, was simply cast out to die.”

Wounded face in full effect, Steve asked, “How old were they?”

“Sleipnir was fifteen. Fenrir and Jormungandr, ten and eight. Hela was no more than a few days old.”

Squeezing Loki’s leg under the table, Tony leaned over to press their shoulders together. He’d seen just how much hurt the god was hiding. Loki found his hand and held it for a moment, managing something approximating a small smile at the gesture. Steve looked stricken, and the rest of the table that hadn’t known the story before wore similar expressions of concern.

Looking back at them, Loki said, “It is not quite so terrible as you imagine. Hela survived and now rules her own realm as Queen of the Dead. In her way, she is more powerful than even Odin.”

“Still,” Steve protested.

“One might begin to understand quite why I am so opposed to Asgard’s rule,” Loki pointed out dryly.

“So,” Tony said when they’d all had time to digest that, “Loki and kids coming to live in the Tower, arguments against? No? Great.”

“We’re all gonna die,” Clint muttered.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (the sex is in this one)

Tony stood in his living room while Loki gathered enough magic to take them to Asgard, wearing his travel gauntlets but otherwise in casual clothes. Then Loki took his hand and there was a disconcerting weightless whirling pull and they stumbled into existence on another planet. Well, Tony stumbled. Looking around, they seemed to have appeared in an alleyway within the city. Craning his neck back, Tony could see the roofs of the palace over the wall that surrounded the complex, and above that the star-filled sky.

“Stay close,” Loki murmured before taking off around the corner and down the street, sticking to the shadows. He led Tony up the hill and through a small postern gate, then through a maze of buildings before they emerged at the edge of a large dirt yard next to a farriery. Pausing for the first time to catch his breath, Tony desperately wanted to take everything in, but Loki tugged him around the yard and into the stables.

The palace stables were large, row upon row of stalls, and filled with the quiet nocturnal sounds of large animals. At the end of one wing was a stall larger than all the others outfitted with tack of an obviously fine quality. The huge stallion housed within came to the door as they approached, his grey coat seeming to glow in the darkness. Sleipnir snorted softly when he caught sight of them and Loki hurried ahead to run his hands over the sides of his son’s head, before unlatching the door and stepping in to embrace him, arms around his neck and fingers scratching through his mane. Sleipnir bumped his chin gently against his mother’s back, blowing air contentedly. Then the horse took a couple of steps back, all eight legs moving with graceful deliberation, and bent his large head down to nose at Loki’s abdomen. The god laughed softly.

“Indeed. Though that is not the only reason I am here. Tell me, did Frigga visit you?”

Sleipnir raised his head, long eyelashes sweeping down in affirmation.

“Let me see,” Loki breathed, moving to the side, fingers fumbling with the bridle that had been left on. From his position at the door to the stall, Tony could hear the breath the god sucked in, and then emerald magic sparked bright and shaky for a moment before Loki pulled the bridle off, casting it to the floor.

In the next instant, the stallion occupying the stall was of a smaller, more normal size for a horse, and had only four legs. It shook itself, coat shuddering and head tossing. Standing next to it was a slightly stocky dark-haired young man in a tunic and breeches, his eyes wide. He swayed and stumbled, and then held on tightly when Loki caught him, pulled him back into an embrace.

“Mother,” he croaked, voice rough with disuse.

“Sleipnir,” Loki gasped. “Sleipnir, my son.”

They held onto each other for a long while, until Sleipnir noticed Tony standing at the door trying to give them some privacy by pretending to act as lookout.

Drawing him out of the stall and closing the door behind them, Loki explained, “Sleipnir, this is Tony Stark of Midgard. He is father to the baby. Tony, my eldest son, Sleipnir.”

Retracting one of his gauntlets, he proffered a hand with a genuine smile. “Nice to meet you.”

Clasping his hand, Sleipnir returned the greeting.

“Sleipnir,” Loki asked gently, “I must go to Fenrir. Can you travel to Helheim on your own? Your sister will be expecting you.”

Nodding, Sleipnir embraced his mother again before taking a step back and vanishing. Sighing, Loki took Tony’s hand and they too vanished from the stables. The pulling-falling sensation was shorter this time and they appeared some distance outside of the city at the foot of a mountain. Loki led him along a lightly wooded path, and then stopped short when a cliff face came into view. Standing before it was a single figure, a soft orb of yellow light floating at their shoulder. Coming forward, the silhouette resolved into a woman in a sumptuously elegant dress, her hair falling in tight curls.

“Frigga,” Loki greeted her quietly, voice guarded.

The Queen of Asgard smiled sadly. “Loki. Am I no longer your mother?”

Shaking his head slightly, Loki said weakly, “You will always be mother to me. Why are you here?”

“Can I not greet my son when I return his children to him?” When Loki didn’t reply to that, she sighed and said, “I never agreed with them being taken from you, Loki.”

“Then why—?”

Reaching out to take his hands in hers, Frigga said gently, “You know that I may not speak of what I see. At the time I thought it right, but as is so often the case, the things we do to try to stave off a certain fate only brought that end closer. I am truly sorry, my son. Perhaps in time you might forgive me. Until then, know that I will not allow Odin to pursue your children further.”

“I could never hold any anger for you. Only…why now?”

Frigga smiled, squeezing Loki’s hands. “You are carrying two more children.”

“I…” Loki blinked. “Two?”

The queen’s smile took on an amused tilt, and suddenly it was clear where the Trickster got it from. “You have not noticed?”

Mutely, Loki shook his head.

Drawing him down to place a kiss on her son’s brow, Frigga said, “Raise them well. I wish you happiness, Loki.”

Moving past him to Tony, she said regally, “And you, Anthony Stark of Midgard, take care of my son and my grandchildren.” The ‘or else’ was heavily implied, and Tony suppressed a shiver.

“I’ll, uh, do my best.”

“See that you do.” With that, Frigga disappeared down the path behind them.

Tony glanced after her, and when he turned back, Loki had conjured his own light, setting it to float in the air before them. Then he led them into an opening in the cliff face, and down into the earth. As they walked, Loki silently took Tony’s hand, holding tight, the other drifting up to cover his stomach, expression far away.

After several minutes of this, Tony asked quietly, “Hey, you okay?”

“Twins are very rare on Asgard. The golden apples that prolong our lives also drastically slow our rate of birth. I am very happy.”

“Oh.” Squeezing Loki’s hand, Tony settled in for the walk. This lasted all of several more minutes, until he absolutely had to ask, “So how come everyone here can apparently tell you’re pregnant?”

Loki shot him an amused glance. “My children can tell because their magic has resonance with mine and they can sense where it pools to help support the babies. Frigga knows because she is goddess of motherhood and such things are her providence.”

“And…the thing about her seeing things?”

“She is gifted with visions from the Norns, but it is the way of things that she may not relate them to anyone else.”

“Well that sounds like a very inefficient system.”

They settled back into silence again, and then Tony started trying to poke at the glowing orb leading their way, making it bob away from his hand and sending their shadows jumping over the walls. Loki laughed at him and caught the tiny ball of fire, placing it in the inventor’s hand. He spent the rest of the walk making it bounce above his palm and walk across his knuckles, desperately trying to figure out how it could exist without emitting any heat. He was so absorbed with this that he didn’t notice they’d stepped into a large cavern until the orb flew out of his hand to anchor itself near the ceiling.

Blinking the spots out of his vision, Tony glanced up and was promptly stunned. The space before them was taken up by a wolf with shaggy black fur bound with a golden chain that kept him lying on the floor, head resting on his forepaws. Despite that, his shoulders still rose well above their heads. Fenrir’s eyes were closed, but his nose twitched as they drew closer.

Circling around to the side, Loki found the stake that kept the chain secure and broke the seal on it with some effort. Then he began to loose Fenrir of his bonds. Tony moved to help him, and between the two of them they had the wolf mostly free of chains before he began to stir. Returning to Fenrir’s front they watched the great wolf’s golden-green eyes blink open, and then Fenrir was standing and shaking himself all over, shrinking rapidly so that it was as a standard Earth-sized wolf that he launched himself at his mother, knocking Loki back onto the ground. The god was laughing, hands ruffling through his son’s fur and scratching behind his ears as Fenrir licked at his face, tail wagging hard enough to move his entire backside. Then Fenrir shifted and Loki sat up to hug the now Aesir-shaped child.

“Fenrir,” he murmured into his son’s hair as Fenrir hugged him back.

“Mama. I missed you. Even though I was sleeping.”

“I know, Fenrir, I know. I missed you, too.” Loki pulled back to cup his son’s face, beaming at him. “But I am so happy to have you back.”

“Mama, am I going to have another sibling?”

“You are going to have two.”

Fenrir nodded. “I hope they’re sisters this time.”

Loki chuckled. “You will have to wait and see. But you already have a sister. Her name is Hela, and she is queen of her very own realm. She was born while you were sleeping, and right now your brothers are with her, so we are also going to meet her.”

“Okay. Mama?”

“Yes?”

“Can I have a ride?”

“Yes, of course you can.” Loki shifted around to let Fenrir climb onto his back and then hoisted him up as he stood, leaning forward slightly to balance.

Catching sight of Tony, Fenrir tilted his head to one side over his mother’s shoulder. “You’re not my sister, are you?” he asked dubiously.

The inventor chuckled. “Nope. I’m Tony. I come from Midgard.” He stuck out a hand and shook Fenrir’s.

“He is the father of your new siblings,” Loki added.

“Oh. Are you going to go away eventually?”

“No, I’m staying.”

Fenrir frowned at him. “Why?”

“Because I want to, and because your mother wants me to.” Given the smile Loki aimed at him, that at least had been a good response.

“Oh. What’s my sister like then?”

“Are you holding on?” Loki asked, and got a ‘mm-hm’ in response. “Then you will find out in just a moment.”

Taking that as his cue, Tony stepped up beside them, tucking his hand into Loki’s elbow where it was supporting one of Fenrir’s legs. Then there was the dizzying teleportation sensation again that Tony was getting used to, although this time it came with a brief shock of cold before they emerged in an elegant sitting room, a fire crackling in the hearth on one wall. Before it on a low couch sat Sleipnir, cradling a steaming cup of tea, and Jormungandr, who seemed to be telling his older brother all about the Avengers before he noticed the new arrivals.

“Mama! Fenrir!”

“Jormungandr,” Loki smiled, letting Fenrir slide to the ground as Jor came running up, kneeling down to embrace both his youngest sons. Then the two of them were talking rapidly at each other around their mother, and Loki let them, amused, standing instead to greet his daughter.

Hela had come up from her seat in the armchair situated across from the couch her brothers had occupied. Her left side was a dark admiral blue with thin black markings swirling across her skin along the contours of her fine features. Her hair and entire eye on that side were jet black, save for the charcoal of her iris. Her right side was pale, with blonde hair and Loki’s green eye. A graceful pair of branched horns curved back from the top of her head, and she wore a simply cut dress of a heavy wine-red fabric.

“Father,” she smiled.

“Hela.” Loki embraced his daughter, kissing her on her darker cheek. “How did you fare with Jor?”

“Well enough. And it is good to see Sleipnir in his natural form.”

“Yes,” Loki agreed. Turning to his sons again and resting a hand on Fenrir’s shoulder he said, “Fenrir, say hello to your sister Hela.”

The siblings exchanged greetings, and Hela bent down to hug Fenrir briefly.

“Your horns are pretty. Can I touch them?”

“Gently,” Hela responded with a smile, kneeling properly to let Fenrir reach.

Then the boys were herded toward the couch, where Loki sat with Sleipnir on one side and Fenrir and Jor on the other, although Jor ended up squirming his way onto his mother’s lap. The four of them made a tight knot as they talked among themselves, Loki helping to explain what had happened and answering his sons’ questions. Shoving his hands in his pockets, Tony watched them from where he still stood across the room, marveling at how much love Loki clearly had for his children, and also a little involuntarily at how much they looked like him while still possessing distinctions in appearance. Sleipnir had hazel eyes and was of a sturdier build, but was tall and had his mother’s high cheekbones, his dark brown hair approaching Loki’s black. Fenrir and Jormungandr both had sharper, more pointed features and delicate builds, jet black hair and eyes of different shades of green, though Fenrir had skin of a rich grey, and a rounder face to his younger brother’s longer one. They looked like the family they were.

Tony startled when Hela came up on his left and said quietly, “I have not seen my father this happy in a very long time. Perhaps never.”

“Yeah. It looks good on him.”

She regarded him sideways, head only slightly turned, an edge of blue showing around her pale side. “You are father to the child he is carrying now?”

“Twins, actually, Frigga told us. And yeah. Though he could have told me he wanted my kids beforehand.”

“This does not anger you,” she observed.

“Well, it did, but then he told me about you and the others,” he said, nodding to the group on the couch. “That was some fucked-up shit, pardon me saying, and I know something about desperation, so no, I don’t hold it against him. I don’t know how much he told you, but I kind of yelled at him that I would let them stay with me and I’d bully my team into fighting Odin for them if need be.”

“He did tell me this, yes.” Hela turned to face him fully then, scrutinizing him closely, and he tried not to fidget. Her two-toned gaze was every bit as piercing as her father’s. Finally she said, “You do not stare. Nor do you avoid what is unusual about my appearance. That is good.”

“Well, if a ten year-old kid can do it, I figure I can, too.”

“Fenrir does not have a lifetime of prejudice behind him.”

“True,” he conceded.

“If you harm my father or any of my siblings, I will not only make the remainder of your life miserable, but your afterlife as well.”

Raising his eyebrows, Tony said, “Your family gives the scariest shovel talks, did you know that?”

“Have you had many of these talks?” she asked with a tone of mild curiosity.

“Well, no,” he admitted, “but I was led to believe that they would involve much less genuine fear for my life and wellbeing.”

Hela laughed at that. “I assume Frigga threatened you as well?”

“It was more implied than anything, but she is one scary woman.”

“Come, sit.” Hela gestured to the chairs. “Tell me about yourself and of Midgard. I confess I have not paid your realm much attention, and I am sure my brothers would like to hear of it as well.”

 

Fenrir insisted on being carried again when they finally decided to relocate back to Earth and Avengers Tower, which made Jormungandr also want a piggyback ride. Sleipnir shuffled sideways on his feet when Jor made his demand, and Tony was reminded of the horse he used to be, and then he was reminded that he used to be a horse.

“Hey,” he asked Jor, “so I’m not as tall as your mom, but do you want to ride on my back?”

Jor agreed happily, Sleipnir looked relived, and Loki shot him a grateful look, so Tony couldn’t regret the offer, even when Jor climbed onto his back from the couch with his arms a little too tight around his neck and heavier than he’d expected. Tony groaned, getting his arms under the kid’s knees and leaning forward to hitch him up higher, Jor bracing his elbows on Tony’s shoulders.

“Letting you know right now kiddo, I am not racing anyone like this, or doing running of any sort, really.”

“Aww,” Jor pouted in his ear, but settled when Loki raised an eyebrow at him from where he was lifting Fenrir onto his own back, huffing, “Fine.”

Then with a chorus of farewells to Hela, they gathered around Loki and were transported into Tony’s living room. Continuing to carry Jor as an excuse to follow, Tony followed Loki into the new hallway. To his slightly chagrined relief, he did not fall through the floor or smack into the wall when he did. Loki put Fenrir down in front of the first door on the left, so Tony let Jormungandr off as well.

Opening the door, Loki announced, “You may explore tomorrow, but now it is time for all of us to go to bed. Fenrir, Jor, this room is yours.” Indicating the door further along the hallway, he said, “The bathroom is there.”

“What’s in that room?” Fenrir asked, pointing at the door across the hall.

“That will be the nursery. You may see it tomorrow,” Loki answered, shooing his younger sons into their room to ready themselves for bed.

Opening the door to his own room down the hall, Sleipnir looked in and then stopped, turning back to Loki. “Mother…”

A rueful smile twisted Loki’s mouth as he went to join his eldest. “I could not bear to be rid of your things. You may change it if you wish.”

“No, I am glad you kept them.” He hugged his mother tightly for a moment, and Loki returned it, reaching out to cup Sleipnir’s face in one hand when they pulled apart, thumb brushing over his cheek.

“Sleep well, my son.”

Tony was edging away to make his escape when Loki returned to him and pulled him into a hug of his own, resting his cheek on Tony’s hair and letting out a sigh. “Hi,” Tony murmured, only slightly startled, settling his arms around the god’s waist.

“I have my children again. I never thought…” Loki fell silent, just holding him. Eventually he sighed again, releasing him. “Go on. I will follow.”

“Don’t you start parenting me, now,” Tony ribbed him lightly. “I have Pepper for that.”

Loki snorted.

Twenty minutes later, the god was climbing into bed beside him, pressing a lingering kiss to his mouth before settling with an arm around his waist.

“Kids all good?” Tony asked sleepily.

“Mm. I may have relied more heavily on Fenrir and Jor to transport us here than they are used to. They did not even protest my tucking them in.”

“Tricky.”

Loki sighed. “Fenrir at least will end up in our bed by morning.”

“S’fine.” Tony was much too tired to be concerned, which he was going to blame on some sort of interdimensional jet-lag.

He dimly registered Loki rolling over some time in the night to let Fenrir climb into his arms, and then they were woken in the morning by Jor at the edge of the bed, with Sleipnir hovering behind him in the doorway. Seeing that he was awake, JARVIS began his usual morning announcement, and the kids, save Jor, jumped. Tony groaned, pushing himself up.

“J, introduce yourself, please.”

Dutifully, the AI did so as Tony padded into the kitchen trailed by three children and the god of mischief. He started the coffee machine and nearly sat on the counter again, but thought better of it. Instead he had JARVIS bring up the day’s information and went about clearing his schedule, waving one hand through the holograms before him as he talked, the other scrubbing through his hair absently. He was pleased to see no calls had been made to Fury, though that didn’t guarantee nothing would be said in person.

“I thought Midgard did not have magic, yet you have projections and a spiritual construct,” Sleipnir remarked, watching him.

“We have a few magic users. But this is all technology. JARVIS is like…” He gestured vaguely with his free hand as he poured.

“Sleipnir, do not bother Tony too much before he’s had his coffee,” Loki said with a smile from where he was beginning to make something with eggs, peppers, and ham for Fenrir and Jor while he waited for the kettle to boil. “Would you like some of this?” Receiving an affirmative, he continued on, “Midgardian technology is able to approximate some of what is possible with magic, but the chief difference is in how the energy is channeled. Whereas our magic may be stored within and controlled through an exertion of will, Midgardian technology must rely on physical and external means of control.”

“That,” Tony said, saluting Loki with his mug. Sipping his coffee, he watched the four people suddenly inhabiting his kitchen, feeling surreally disconnected from it all. It hit him then what an irrevocable change he’d made to his life and how utterly unprepared for it he was. He was an outsider looking in on Loki’s relationship with his children, relegated to the periphery in his own home with no idea of how to approach this thing filling his space.

It turned out that what Loki was making was something like a frittata, and there was enough for Tony, too. Even he recognized that he was uncharacteristically quiet during breakfast, and when the kids had gotten permission to explore the rest of the penthouse after they washed up, Loki hooked an ankle under his beneath the table, a question. Just the two of them left in the kitchen, it was almost back to something Tony knew how to handle, if not for the reminder of the sounds drifting down the kids’ hallway. Still, he was on the verge of shrugging it off and claiming everything was fine. That was what he did, put on a mask and conceal weakness.

“God of lies, Tony,” Loki reminded him quietly.

Dropping his head, he laughed. “Yeah, guess you are.” He sighed. “Just realizing how little I know what I’m doing here and how much this might come back to bite me in the ass.”

When he looked back up, Loki’s expression had become carefully closed off, a wary distance placed between them.

It took him a moment, but then he realized what Loki must be thinking and he leaned forwards over the table. “Hey, I’m not changing my mind. My old man was shitty enough that I don’t want to do something like that. I just…I’m gonna need some processing time.” Loki let him see relief flicker across his face, and Tony raised judgmental eyebrows at him, getting his footing back. “You keep doing that. Is this some kind of calculated effort to guilt me into reciprocating?”

Loki smirked at him. “I do nothing without calculation.”

“You know, I don’t believe that.” Leaning back in his chair again, he said, “I think I want to take Pepper out to dinner tonight. Which means I should finish that paperwork for her. Otherwise, I’m good to play buffer.”

Loki stood, coming around the table to press a kiss to his mouth.

Once it seemed like the kids had opened and shut every door in the penthouse, including the cabinets and appliances, and covered most of the square footage, alternating questions between Loki and Tony, they all trooped down to the common floor. Jor took the lead then, excited to show his brothers around with all the authority of an eight year old. Fenrir seemed torn between asserting himself as the older sibling and staying close to Loki now that they were on a floor with unfamiliar people, though he was a little too old to actually hold his mother’s hand. Sleipnir also seemed inclined to stay close, trailing after Loki as he followed his younger sons, allowing Jor to show them the rec room and lounge. Steve was sketching by the windows, and Natasha was stretched out in a split on the floor, propped up on her elbows to read a book, both of them looking up when their little group came in.

“Hey, so mission success,” Tony announced to them. “And, turns out we got a bonus child.”

Loki rolled his eyes. “He means I am carrying twins.”

“Congrats,” Steve said, as Natasha shifted to face over her left leg. They were both still on guard around Loki, but that was to be expected. They greeted the kids warmly enough, though, already familiar with Jormungandr and soon won over by Fenrir as well.

Thor showed up then with his usual enthusiasm, and Fenrir lost much of his shyness, chattering away with his uncle and his brother, occasionally looping the rest of the adults in the room in. Sleipnir, on the other hand, drifted away from the group after a cursory greeting to Thor, and Tony found himself being awkwardly almost-hidden behind.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked quietly.

Sleipnir shrugged. “I am not…particularly fond of my uncle.” He looked about to say more, but seemingly thought better of it.

Tony weighed his options, then leaned close to ask in an undertone, “Does Thor know about your father?”

Sleipnir startled, glancing at him. “No. I did not think Mother had told anyone, aside from perhaps my siblings.”

It was Tony’s turn to shrug. “He told me. Sorry if you wanted to keep it a secret.”

“It is fine. There were…reasons to keep it from the court in Asgard. Please do not tell Thor.”

“No, of course not.” Tony was about to suggest he show Sleipnir his workshop, since that was where Tony usually went to avoid uncomfortable social situations and the bots could generally be relied upon to provide comic relief, but he was prevented by Clint wandering in.

The archer was halfheartedly dressed and clutching blearily at an extra-large mug of coffee, looking every bit the human disaster that he was. Sidling up to Tony, he nodded at where Fenrir and Jor had apparently decided exploring the common area could be put off in favor of playing one of the multitude of board games contained in the rec room. They were debating whether to play Blokus or Qwirkle first, and had managed to rope in both Thor and Loki since both games were best with four players. Meanwhile, the two older gods were managing to share a table like civilized people. “That’s surreal.”

“Tell me about it.”

“So everything worked out?”

“More or less. Loki’s having twins. This is Sleipnir. The other one over there is Fenrir. Sleipnir, this is Clint Barton. He’s usually more human starting around noon.”

“Aren’t you just hilarious.” Clint took a drink of his coffee. “Oh, hey, I was going to test those new arrows today.”

“Good, let me know how they work out.”

Sleipnir perked up. “You are an archer?”

Clint nodded. “Yup. No powers, but I’ve got a bow and some pretty sweet trick arrows. It works out.”

“I always preferred the bow to the sword.”

Nose buried in his coffee cup again, Clint held out his free hand in a fist. Sleipnir just blinked in confusion. “Oh, right. You don’t do those.”

“It’s a fist bump. Like this,” Tony explained, demonstrating.

“Anyway,” Clint went on, “we’ve got our own range down in the gym.”

“May I see it?” For the first time Sleipnir looked actually interested, but then amended, “When you are more alert of course.”

Clint grinned. “I’m always awake enough for archery.”

Sleipnir turned back to the group at the table, hesitating now for reasons that didn’t have to do with his uncle. “Mother, did you keep my bow?”

Loki looked over from where Jormungandr was now explaining the rules to Blokus, a decision having evidently been reached, smiling at his older son. “I did. It should be in your room.”

Sleipnir nodded, and with some concentration pulled a tall recurve bow and a coiled string from the air, his face lighting up when he did. “May I go to the range with Clint?”

Loki beamed. “Keep your shoulder down.”

Sleipnir rolled his eyes, still smiling. “Yes, Mother.”

“And you,” Tony added, pointing at Clint, “don’t destroy my range.”

“Yeah, Mom,” Clint snarked back, already leading Sleipnir back towards the elevator.

Tony turned around to find Natasha had appeared next to him, as she was wont to do. He only jumped a little.

“How are you doing, Tony?”

“Well, you know, in shock. I’ve got a dinner date with Pepper tonight, though.”

She nodded. “You know Fury will have to be told at some point. _Before_ this becomes public.”

Tony rubbed a hand through his hair, watching the small group he’d taken into his home fit translucent plastic pieces onto the game board. “Yeah. As much as I dislike them, I’m thinking we should probably go through SHIELD medical when the twins are born. It’s not exactly like Loki can go to a regular hospital.”

Natasha made a noise of agreement.

“What’s the chance we can delay telling Fury until Loki starts showing? Would that give us any significant leverage?”

“You’d have to be careful about it, but it’s a good idea. Better if you can get Loki to agree to an ultrasound and paternity testing at SHIELD. Fury will do a lot of things, but deliberately harming innocent children is not one of them, and that will curtail a lot of his suspicion. You realize that this could all still be manipulation on Loki’s part?”

“Well, yeah, but honestly, it’d suck if he was manipulating me, but I can’t really fault him for making sure he has a safe place to raise his kids. I saw him release Sleipnir and Fenrir from Asgard, and I met his daughter Hela. If this is all some kind of elaborate lie, what’s the point? Why would he go to such lengths to infiltrate us when everything he’s done since that first attempt to take over the world—which he deliberately threw, and Thor confirmed for us he’d been coerced into—has been more like aggressively independent pranking? We’re not asking him to join the team or anything, and I really don’t see what else he could gain.”

Natasha nodded. “So your brain hasn’t completely shut down. Good for you.”

Tony punched her in the shoulder. Quickly, and lightly, because he didn’t want his wrist broken on reflex. Natasha just laughed at him.

Bruce surfaced from his lab for lunch and was his usual awkward but genial self around the kids.

As they were finishing up, Jor asked, “Mama, do we have to do meditation?”

Loki raised an eyebrow at him, smiling a little. “Would you rather have naptime after lunch?”

Jor made a face. “I’m not a _baby_ anymore.”

“I will not be able to give you proper magic lessons until after the twins are born, but that is no reason not to practice the basics.”

Jor huffed dramatically, but otherwise didn’t complain as he and Fenrir carried their dishes to the sink.

“You never made me meditate every day,” Sleipnir remarked to his mother. He’d come up from the range since food was one of the only things that could pull Clint away from shooting.

“No, but you do not have the same wild magic that they possess.” Loki smiled, briefly pulling his son into a one-armed hug. “But that does not mean you should not also practice.”

Tony sighed. “I might as well do my paperwork if you’re gonna have quiet time then.”

“Alright.” Loki dropped a kiss to his mouth before he and his children disappeared into the elevator.

 

The restaurant he met Pepper at was upscale French, new but not so new that it didn’t have a slew of favorable reviews and he couldn’t easily reserve a private table for the same day. JARVIS had helpfully informed him that Pepper had mentioned wanting to go. She was wearing a dress that could have easily qualified as a Little Black Dress except that it was a very nice shade of mossy green that managed to bring out her coloring without making him think of Christmas. What it did make him think of was Loki. He wasn’t going to go so far as to say it was an omen or anything, but Tony couldn’t help but think of it as significant.

Pepper kissed his cheek and said, “Timely paperwork _and_ dinner? I just might think you’re up to something Mister Stark.”

“Oh, I’m always up to something, Miss Potts” he replied with his usual bravado. Once they’d been seated though, the wine chosen and poured and their food ordered, he let some of it slip away. As much as he could while in public. Picking at his napkin beneath the tablecloth, he sighed. “So, situation. I may have been banging the Norse god of mischief ever since he showed up here again after the invasion, and he may have gotten pregnant with my children on purpose without telling me, and now he and three of his other kids might be living in the Tower. With me.”

Pepper’s eyebrows were up near her hairline. “Alright, first question, which I’ll probably regret: _Why_ did you think it was a good idea to sleep with _Loki?_ ”

“I mean, he’s hot, have you seen him—”

“I have, actually.” Pepper was unmoved.

“Right, well, he _is_ , and he’s dangerous, and at the time he was…well, he wasn’t you.”

They’d been dancing around each other for a while before the Chitauri invasion, and he’d thought they’d been going _somewhere_ , until three weeks after he’d flown a nuclear bomb into space, Pepper had come into his workshop with a manila file folder full of papers. Those things were basically her version of Captain America’s shield, and she’d set this one down on his worktable and said, “I think this is me.” The top page was an article on asexuality printed out from the internet. “You’re the only family I have left, Tony, and it’s hard enough watching you nearly die because of the things you do as Iron Man. I love you too much to ruin what we have with a relationship in which we both feel inadequate because I can’t give you what you want.”

He had wanted to sleep with Pepper, and sex _was_ important to him, although it wasn’t everything. He’d have been willing to try an actual mature adult relationship for once in his life even without it, but he loved Pepper enough that he’d agreed. She was still, fortunately, one of his best friends.

“Except then it turned out that not only is he a great lay, he’s also interesting, and witty, and he’s smart enough to actually keep up with me. I can count on one hand the people who can do that. And then it just sort of, kept happening, and it was still sex, but then sometimes it was also movies, or dinner, or debates about the nature of the fabric of space-time and whether or not I could duplicate everything he could do with magic but with technology, which I said would mean that Asgardian magic really is just advanced technology and he said would not.”

“Okay, second question,” Pepper inserted smoothly before he could get distracted by science, “ _he_ is pregnant?”

“Yeah. Apparently it’s common for Jotun to be intersex. Even though he _looks_ like a regular guy, I mean, I couldn’t _tell_ —”

Pepper held up a hand, stopping him. “More than I need to know, Tony.”

“Anyway, yeah, he decided he wanted another kid since he no longer had to worry about Odin taking them away from him in some horrible manner. He told me what happened to his other four kids and lemme tell you, it was like getting a load of bricks dumped on my heart. Really, it’s not surprising that he hates Asgard so much.”

“So you…?” She made an expectant ‘fill in the blank’ gesture.

“Pretty much demanded that he move in with me as soon as I could talk to him after I found out, which included the one kid he’d already gotten back from Odin, and then two others when it became clear that Loki could free them as well.”

Pepper’s eyebrows drew together. “And how are you feeling about this, Tony?”

Glancing over to make sure their waiter was out of hearing range after their food had arrived, he leaned over the table, hissing urgently, “ _Pepper_ , I’m going to be a father. I have created two tiny humans—well, not actually humans. I’m not sure what they are really, I mean, they’re at least half human but I don’t actually know what Loki is since, you know, he’s Jotun and not actually the same race as Thor but he’s also apparently a shape shifter which is why he looks the same—and anyway they’re _people_ and I have no clue what I’m _doing_.”

“I’m fairly certain most people don’t know what they’re doing when they become parents for the first time. Although, most people don’t have kids with the Norse trickster god. Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“When is anything I do a good idea?”

“Point.”

“Ouch, Pep.”

“You said it.”

Tony sighed, leaning back. “Loki’s only had his kids back for a day, but it’s pretty obvious he’s really good with them. Loki when he’s around people he actually cares about is so much different than Loki when he’s out causing mayhem on the streets, and that… I get that.”

Pepper nodded. “And what about you, Tony? Is this a good idea for you?”

“I don’t know. Finding out I had a child, it was like… It feels like everything’s shifted. Like Afghanistan, but in a good way. Except, you know, that was me and my technology and at the time I figured the one person I cared about hurting could handle himself—which, look at how well that turned out—and this is real actual people I’m gonna be responsible for not fucking up for at least eighteen years. How am I supposed to do that when I’m not even a functional person most of the time?”

“As your former PA, I think I’m qualified to say that you’re only dysfunctional when you can’t be bothered to care, which is…a lot of the time. You just have different priorities than most people, and have never been forced to widen them.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“So the question is, do you care enough to prioritize your child—”

“Children,” he corrected absently. “Loki’s having twins.”

“Alright, your children. Do you care enough to prioritize them, and to prioritize Loki as your co-parent?”

“I, yeah, I think so.”

Pepper nodded, putting down her fork to take a sip of wine. “Good. The other question is, why did Loki agree to moving himself and three of his children into your penthouse?”

He frowned in confusion. “Because a tower full of superheroes is the safest place from Odin, and my floor is the safest place from said other superheroes?”

“Tony, that is a big decision on his part. If Loki really is as good of a parent as you say, he has to put his kids before himself, which is what I mean by prioritizing them. He didn’t have to stay here, and I’m sure he could have come up with some other way to keep his kids safe. On top of that, he’s tied himself to you potentially until your kids are grown, and it doesn’t seem like he’s been much inclined to rely on anyone else since leaving Asgard.”

“Oh…” And then the full implications of that sunk in, and Tony let out a quiet, “ _Fuck_.” Loki trusted him. Trusted him with his _kids_. Loki, who had been burned so many times. “Am I in over my head?”

“When has that ever stopped you before?”

“ _Pepper_ , this is serious. This went from fuckbuddies to massive commitment in about two seconds flat, and I can’t even freak out about Loki probably _being in love with me_ because I’m too busy freaking out about everything else.”

Pepper smiled knowingly at him. “Are you in love with him?”

“Fuck,” he said again. “I don’t know? I just…I want him to be happy.”

“Well, I’m told that’s a good start.”

 

It was late by the time Tony made it back to the penthouse. He was just stripping off his suit jacket when Loki emerged, sliding his hands over Tony’s waistcoat and pressing up against his back. When Tony turned his head, Loki caught his mouth in a kiss.

“How was your dinner?”

“Pepper says we need to communicate. Also that she’s a terrible person to come to for advice about kids since she doesn’t want any, but she will help out with PR for you because she’s awesome like that.”

Loki hummed, kissing him again, deeper this time. Tony twisted in his arms, getting his own hands on the Trickster’s body and letting himself be persuaded back from the closet towards the bed.

“And what,” Loki asked, tugging him down, “are we in need of communicating?”

“Mostly what I should expect in terms of your pregnancy and being a secondary adult-figure to your kids. But also as like, a consistent thing in general.” Tony shifted up, planting his elbows in the mattress, as Loki reached past his shoulder with a flattened palm, his other hand teasing underneath Tony’s waistcoat. The door shut behind them with a soft thump. Tony raised an eyebrow, a smirk tugging at his mouth.

“Silence charm,” Loki purred, nosing at his jaw up to his ear. “Enjoy it while you still can.”

“Is that charm going anywhere?” Tony’s words had lost some breath, but he didn’t quite mind.

“No,” Loki’s hands were at his buttons now, “but the twins will take up more of my magic as they grow and start to develop power of their own. Between them and the spells I maintain to keep myself and my children safe from harm and out of view of both Heimdall and Hlidskjalf, I will not have much left.”

Tony reached down to return the favor and push Loki’s shirt up. “Hli-what?”

“Odin’s high seat from which he might see all,” the god answered, pulling it over his head and off.

“Oh. You know, I’m pretty sure this isn’t how these conversations are supposed to happen.”

“Would you rather be having it otherwise?”

“Not really, no.” He dropped his head to mouth at Loki’s collarbone and the juncture of his neck.

“Good.” Loki wrapped one long leg over his hip.

Tony groaned. “Oh, you’re evil.”

“Would you rather have me otherwise?” the god teased.

“Absolutely not,” Tony said, nipping at the corner of his jaw.

“I do not lie to my children, Tony,” Loki told him, expression serious as their eyes met, even as his hands slid into Tony’s open shirt to stroke over his chest and sides, thumbing over his nipples. “Not even with the excuse that they are too young to understand. I refuse to be absent from their lives, though all of them are capable of managing themselves. Fenrir and Jor especially know that they must fix anything they break.” Loki smiled impishly, and Tony took the moment to shimmy out of his waistcoat and shirt, still holding eye contact. “Though I will always teach them how, of course. Also, I am not enamored of your gender roles and will not be enforcing them.”

“Somehow I didn’t think you would.” Tony had knelt a little to free his arms, and now Loki followed him up to mouth at his chest, which led to both of them becoming distracted for a long while until he’d gotten Loki out of his pants, making his way down his body to nuzzle at his abdomen. Loki didn’t really look pregnant yet, but had definitely softened out, putting on a little extra weight around the middle. Tony glanced up as he pressed a kiss to his skin. “When will you start showing?”

Loki smiled down at him, propped up on one elbow with a hand running through Tony’s hair. “Soon. Less than two weeks.”

Smiling back, Tony pressed one more kiss over where his children were growing. He nearly asked if Loki was in love with him, but with the way the god was looking at him it felt too much like walking over a cliff, so instead he slid the rest of the way down to take Loki in his mouth. He made it good, though he had to take one of his hands away to shove his own pants down so he could touch himself too. He did rather take smug pride in the fact that he could turn a god into a bit of a moaning wreck in his bed.

“Tony, Tony,” Loki gasped, “fuck me.”

He pulled off with a grin, hurrying out of his pants and going for the lube in the nightstand. Loki dragged him into a kiss as he started prep, demanding and impatient.

“Oh, shit,” Tony panted when he started rocking inside. “Are we gonna have to worry about more kids if we keep doing this?”

“Shapeshifter,” Loki reminded him, thighs urging him deeper. “I can be fully male.”

“Sweet,” he grinned, falling back to his elbows and letting Loki take possession of his mouth again. “And you… _tell me_ …’f you’re not,” he managed to get out.

“Yes, Tony, now _move_.”

After both of them had been thoroughly satisfied, Tony heaved himself off to the side. Loki could take it if he collapsed on top of him, but he’d rather not land in the mess. “I still don’t know what you want from me,” he mumbled from where his face was smushed into Loki’s shoulder.

“Mm, well, I do want to top you again before the pregnancy makes everything too uncomfortable.”

Tony groaned. “Not fair. You make me wish I was ten years younger.”

Loki chuckled, pressing a kiss to his sweaty hair before climbing out of bed to clean himself up. When he came back he was wearing a pair of loose pants, and tossed a pair of Tony’s boxers at his head. He actually bothered to make sure the washcloth he cleaned Tony with made it into the laundry rather than on the floor, and then did something that made the sex smell go away. Tony pulled the boxers covering his face down just enough to pout at him.

“It is only the second night, Tony,” Loki said, prodding him until they could get under the covers. “Fenrir will end up in here again, and he spends half his time as a wolf.”

Tony grumbled but pulled the boxers on, wrapping himself petulantly around the god. Loki huffed, amused, and held him back.

“I am not asking you for much right now,” he murmured. “I want you to get to know my children first. Even I will admit, however, that I cannot manage three children and two newborns, possibly not even three children while heavily pregnant. I will ask you to watch them, then, when you are comfortable. Sleipnir is of an age that he can help you.”

Tony hummed. “I can do that.”

Loki kissed his hair again, his mouth moving silently for a moment. Tony didn’t need to ask what the words were. He thought he knew already.

Their late night turned into a late morning, one in which Tony was woken by hasty movement and then the sound of vomiting from the bathroom. He blinked awake and sat up to the toilet flushing and water running in the sink. Loki came back to bed looking pale and thoroughly unhappy. He flopped down on his front, and Tony reached out to pet his hair.

“Gods get morning sickness?”

“Unfortunately,” Loki muttered from where his face was pushed into the covers by Tony’s hip.

He took a breath and asked, “Need me to do anything?”

Loki turned his head slightly to peer up at him from one eye. “There is tea in a yellow wooden box in the cupboard left of the stove. It will help.”

“Okay.” He leaned over to kiss Loki’s temple before climbing out of bed.

“Pants, Tony,” the god called after him without moving, and he swerved in his path towards the door.

“Right.”

The box Loki had specified had strange flowing writing on it and was much fancier than any usual box of tea, with hinges and a clasp, but inside it contained individual mesh sachets, so Tony figured space tea couldn’t be that different. Loki managed to make it into the kitchen as he was pouring the water, still looking nauseous, and perched on a stool. When Tony handed him the tea, he fairly stuck his nose in it, inhaling deeply and taking small sips.

“Do you want to eat anything?” Tony asked, starting the coffee machine. There were two bowls with spoons in the sink, and he figured that meant at least two children had already been through the kitchen. “I don’t really cook, but I can do cereal and can probably manage not to burn toast.”

“Toast will be fine.”

Sleipnir wandered in and blinked at the sight of Loki looking less than his usual put-together confident self. “Mother?”

Loki mustered up a smile for him. “I will be fine. The pregnancy is simply making me ill.” He held out an arm and Sleipnir let himself be pulled into a hug before he began to make his own breakfast. “Did you see Fenrir and Jor this morning?”

Sleipnir nodded. “They are playing in their own room.”

Breakfast was a quiet affair, over the course of which Loki looked progressively better. Afterwards, Fenrir and Jor were shown the gym, then all three kids were taken down to Tony’s workshop under strict instructions not to touch anything and were introduced to the bots. The younger boys took a liking to DUM-E, Butterfingers, and U immediately, running around the shop and throwing wadded up bits of paper for them to fetch. It was even better when they figured out that the robots got confused when they changed forms.

“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?” Tony asked, watching his poor bots waving their arms around, their quarry lost as a black wolf and a silver snake made their way around behind them only for Fenrir and Jor to burst back into humanoid form, the bots beeping and rocking back and forth in hasty twenty-seven point turns to resume the chase.

Standing next to him, Loki laughed. “Quite possibly.”

Sleipnir, meanwhile, was fascinated by the fabricator machines, and, when Tony sidled over to ask what was up, had a dozen or more questions. Tony was delighted.

They ended up on the common floor again for lunch, and then Fenrir discovered Scrabble on the games shelf. Tony had actually forgotten they had it. He didn’t remember who thought it would be a good idea, but they’d only played a couple of times with various team members because between the Tower’s four polyglots, Bruce and Tony’s technical jargon, Steve and Clint’s weird slang, and Thor’s atrocious spelling, just about the only words that didn’t produce a twenty minute argument were expletives, and sometimes not even those were safe. They didn’t end up playing this time either, Fenrir’s initial finding turning into Loki teaching all of his kids the English alphabet.

“Huh,” Bruce observed, in the kitchen for his usual sandwich and midday cup of tea, and watching as Loki wrote out letters in three different scripts. “It’s easy to forget that none of you actually know English, given how flawless your Allspeak is.”

Loki glanced over, conjuring several sheets of paper and passing them across the table for his children to practice on. “Indeed. Although, utilized correctly, Allspeak can aid in learning new tongues rapidly, to the point where it is no longer needed. I hear and speak three different languages depending on whether I am interacting with you, Sleipnir, or Fenrir and Jormungandr, as well as knowing many others to various degrees besides.”

Bruce’s eyebrows went up. “Wow. I get why you’d want to for your kids, but otherwise why bother?” he asked, genuinely curious.

“It can be useful not to rely on Allspeak in certain situations, especially for those studying the magecraft of other Realms,” Loki explained, though his smile spoke of mischief.

Tony nodded, smirking back as he tried to imagine what sorts of things Loki could have gotten up to. “Totally like how back in Edison’s day they had to get technical books in German because it took too long to wait for the translation, right?”

Their conversation was interrupted by the entrance of Steve and Thor, who broke into his customary huge grin when he saw the group seated around the table, though at the Trickster’s pointed look, he amended his customary greeting, exclaiming instead, “Loki! Nephews! What so occupies you this day?”

“We’re learning English,” Jormungandr piped up.

“You might do well to do the same,” Loki commented, moving discreetly to place himself between Sleipnir and Thor under the guise of helping his son. “Perhaps you might avoid repeating the mistakes you made with the Lady Cidril should you attempt to woo your Jane in the same manner.”

Thor’s face flushed red from where he was looking through the refrigerator for his own lunch.

Looking between the two of them, Tony asked, “What’d he do?”

“Oh, he attempted to write her poetry in her native language and botched it terribly. It was quite the scandal. I suppose one can only be glad that Asgardian verse does not _rhyme_.”

“How was I to know that the tonal inflections were supposed to be indicated before the words rather than after?” Thor muttered, sitting down with an amalgamation of leftovers which included both half of a massive pulled pork sandwich and egg foo young.

Loki rolled his eyes. “Perhaps if you put your Allspeak to better use than communicating with the wildlife.”

“Animals are dumb,” Jor put in. “Especially birds. They never have anything interesting to say.”

“They’re funny when you chase them,” Fenrir pointed out, and his brother nodded in agreement, conceding the point.

“In any case,” Loki said, taking rare pity on Thor and returning to the previous subject, “it would be helpful to have books in English meant for young readers.”

Tony exchanged glances with Bruce and Steve. “Harry Potter,” the three of them agreed.


	3. Chapter 3

The kids loved Harry Potter, even if they found the magic to be hilarious in its wild inaccuracy. Someone, Tony wasn’t sure who, mentioned the existence of the movies, and Loki ended up promising that they could watch each of the movies as soon as they had all finished the corresponding book. Sleipnir quickly outpaced his younger brothers, and Tony dug up copies of Lord of the Rings for him, and then on further thought his own beloved Isaac Asimov books. Eventually, he had JARVIS help make a reading list, although Loki later nixed any sort of mythology from it. Tony supposed he had a point.

Sometime in the middle of watching the first Harry Potter movie, Loki’s hand slipped into his, and Tony spent the rest of the film telling himself that he was not a teenager with his first crush. He’d _fucked_ Loki, was having kids with him for Christ’s sake, and anyway they’d totally held hands before— He laced their fingers together, and was eighty percent sure he hadn’t imagined the uptick of Loki’s mouth out of the corner of his eye in the flickering light of the projector. It didn’t help his internal monologue.

Several days later, Fenrir and Jor came bounding up. “Mama, can we have a wizarding duel?”

Loki raised his eyebrows at his sons as they practically bounced in front of him. “Perhaps after the twins are born and I am able to properly moderate so that you are _safe_. You remember what I have said about things like this?”

“Living things are harder to fix than objects so don’t break them,” the boys chorused, and Loki nodded.

“Can we have our own wands?” Jormungandr asked.

“I suppose so.”

The boys cheered.

Their second movie night was preceded by a brief lesson in magical theory, Fenrir and Jor gathered around Loki on the couch and Sleipnir slightly apart and watching with some amusement. “Wands may be used, like staffs and scepters, as a conduit to direct your magic,” Loki explained, borrowing the wand Fenrir had picked out for himself and projecting a square of green light above his flattened palm. “They may be useful in controlling powerful spells or working with those that are delicate or detailed.” Using the wand, he folded his illusion like paper into a simple origami shape. “However, it is always better to learn to manipulate your magic yourself without becoming reliant on such devices, and I will expect you to work without your wands when I resume your lessons.” The boys nodded seriously, and Loki handed Fenrir’s wand back handle-first.

Tony, meanwhile, snapped a photo on his phone and sent it to Pepper and all of the Avengers. Well, all except Thor, who had fried his last cellphone and Tony had yet to get around to attempting to make him a replacement that would survive. He’d have to remember to show Thor in person. Pepper and Bruce both replied promptly with varying expressions of approval. Natasha responded with ‘stark this is not how you keep a secret’

‘you all have starkphones,’ he texted back, ‘and i trust you, now stop being a spoilsport’

‘fine, they’re cute, happy now?’

‘better’

Natasha texted him an emoji with a waggling tongue, but the movie started before Tony could get into a competition for the last word.

He couldn’t put off his responsibilities to SI or the team forever, or even stay out of the workshop for long really, and so it was as he returned to the penthouse that he found Fenrir and Jor happily chasing each other around the living room, shifting fluidly between forms and shooting illusory blasts of magic with their new wands. Loki was watching them from where he leaned against the kitchen bar, looking like he was holding back his own amused laughter, open and happy. It looked good on him. Tony sidled around the kids to lean next to him, and the Trickster looped an arm casually around his waist just as Fenrir burst apart a stream of Jor’s silver magic with his own amber light and a cry of “Alohomora!”

“That’s not what that spell does,” Jormungandr complained, stopping.

“So? It’s not a _real_ spell, and it sounds pretty. I can make it do whatever I want to.”

Jor huffed and rolled his eyes, and Fenrir stuck his tongue out at his brother. Then he launched himself from where he was standing on the couch cushions, transforming into his wolf in midair. Jor shifted into serpent form, twisting out of the way of Fenrir’s landing, and then the two of them were wrestling playfully across the floor, changing rapidly in size as they tried to get an advantage on the other. It was quite something to watch, and Tony was sure that if he’d been into the squishy sciences his head would be hurting even worse than it currently was. Then there was a sharp crack as the boys rolled over onto the coffee table and something broke. They shifted back immediately, blinking and sheepish as they disentangled themselves and took in the snapped tabletop.

Fenrir looked over at his brother. “That wasn’t my fault.”

“Oops.” Jormungandr set his wand down on the floor and extended his hands with a frown of concentration. Mouth forming words under his breath, Jor sent out his silver magic again, restoring the table to its previous condition. He glanced over at them when he was done as if to make sure it was okay. Loki nodded, smiling proudly.

Tony felt obligated to say something, since it was technically his furniture, and ended up with, “Nice job, kiddo.”

Jor grinned, and he and Fenrir had soon moved on to something entirely different. Turning his attention from them, Loki brushed a welcome home kiss over Tony’s mouth, leaning into him.

“All of this magic just _happening_ all over my house with absolutely no regard for the laws of physics is going to drive me crazy, you know,” he said as they pulled apart. “You’re lucky I like a challenge.”

Loki laughed and kissed him again.

 

Tony paused in getting dressed one morning when he realized Loki had stopped in front of the full-length mirror. The god’s pants were slung low on his hips and he hadn’t put on a shirt yet, his fingers instead brushing over the bare skin of his abdomen, which had rounded into a noticeable bump. Tony came up behind his shoulder, his hand joining Loki’s, marveling a little at the feel of Loki’s pregnancy beneath his palm. Loki met his eyes in the mirror with a helpless smile, lacing their fingers together and letting him feel the lives underneath—his— _their_ —children. Tony pressed a kiss to Loki’s shoulder, both of them looking down at their joined hands. He could feel the two of them now, each twin a distinct presence in his perception, though he couldn’t have described how. They remained there for an indeterminate length of time, nothing else quite as important as this for the moment.

Finally Tony kissed Loki’s shoulder again and admitted, “We can’t really put off breaking this to Fury for much longer.” Really it was a miracle they’d managed to keep it from him for this long.

“I am not taking any of my other children anywhere near SHIELD.”

“Of course not,” Tony agreed immediately. “Fury can bluster all he likes, he’s not getting in here, either. The bastard getting through my security once was enough. We should maybe let Coulson in, though, since Fury will trust him more than either of us.”

Loki turned to look at him, surprised. “Agent Coulson lives?”

“Oh, yeah, I guess you wouldn’t have known since he’s always on the back end of things. Yeah, Fury used some horribly experimental procedure on him and then kept it a secret from us for like a year. JARVIS found him when he was going through the system for me. Clint especially was devastated when he found out, and that was when we decided to distance the team from SHIELD. Agent’s our liaison now.”

“It is well that he survived,” Loki murmured. “He displayed much courage.”

Tony squeezed his fingers.

Blinking out of it, Loki sighed and turned away to find a shirt that would leave his baby bump at least a little visible among his Earth-style button-downs and the long loose tunics that would be required later in the pregnancy. Abruptly, Tony realized that Loki now had his own space in his closet. Which made sense, really, but it was just another one of those changes he hadn’t noticed at first in the midst of everything else that was happening at the time.

“I’m guessing you’re probably not keen on leaving the kids with Thor all day?” Loki glanced over at him. “What about Steve? He’s actually good with kids in a non-theoretical way.”

“That is fine. Sleipnir is old enough to be left on his own, but I hesitate to ask him to watch Fenrir and Jor by himself since they did not grow up as brothers.” Loki frowned.

“So we put Steve in as a figurehead. I’m sure he’s used to the position.”

Loki smirked, amused. “Indeed. Come, I will need my tea if I am to deal with your Director Fury today.”

“Why’s he my director?” Tony snarked, following him out of the bedroom. “I’m just a consultant, I don’t have to listen to him.”

“And indeed you do not,” Loki returned.

They bantered a bit through breakfast, and then convinced Steve to keep an eye on the kids, which wasn’t really that hard, and then Tony had JARVIS put him through to Fury’s personal line while the children went down to the common floor.

“Who the hell is this,” the Director growled when he picked up.

“Nicky, is that how you greet me? I’m hurt.” He grinned at Loki, who rolled his eyes, but was silently amused nonetheless.

“Stark. Why am I not surprised?”

“Uh, because I’m a technological genius and getting your number is child’s play for me? Listen, you remember Jor, who turned out to be Loki’s kid?”

“What about him?”

“Well, there’s been some developments and I think you should know. Are you busy today?”

“I’m always busy, Stark. This better not be a waste of my time.”

“Oh, it’s not. Pinky promise. I’m even willing to come tell you in person.”

Fury sighed. “Just get your ass over here.”

“Toodles,” Tony trilled. Fury hung up on him, and he grinned. “He’s never not fun to annoy. Come on, you wanna teleport directly into his office?”

Loki considered. “I could manage it, but I would rather conserve my magic. Besides, it would be better to teleport out, yes?”

“Drama queen,” Tony said fondly.

“As if you are not.”

They made a stop on the common floor for Loki to hug Sleipnir and to tell Fenrir and Jor, “Do not cause too much trouble.”

At Steve’s slightly judgmental eyebrows, Loki asked, “What did you think I would tell my children?”

“You’ve got a point.”

In the car Loki kissed him and then pulled the collar of his shirt aside, sucking a bruise low on his neck that would be just visible to anyone who was looking. The expression on his face was so purely mischievous that Tony had to pull him back in, tugging once at his hair before they had to separate.

Tony walked Loki through SHIELD with a proprietary hand in the small of his back and a subtly challenging expression that just dared any agents they passed to stop them. Loki, for his part, looked entirely nonplussed, as if there was nothing unusual about his showing up in SHIELD headquarters unannounced. Neither of them deigned to notice the whispers sweeping through the halls after them as they pointedly exchanged small talk.

Fury glared at them when they entered his office, rising from his high-backed leather chair. “You want to explain to me what he’s doing here outside of a pair of handcuffs, Stark?”

“That would be because I am a development,” Loki replied, smile sharp. “More specifically, that I happen to be pregnant with Tony’s children.”

“I’m rather inclined to keep all three of them,” Tony added, letting his hand slide across Loki’s back to his hip, helpfully pulling the fabric of his shirt tighter. Loki’s arm settled around his waist in return.

Fury took in Loki’s gently protruding abdomen and the hickey on Tony’s neck, and then he glared at them harder, not speaking. A vein twitched in his temple. Beneath his casual-asshole façade, Tony almost wanted to laugh. “And what makes you think you can trust his word on that,” the Director finally ground out.

“Well, maybe the fact that I’ve been fucking him for the past few years and he has zero reason to be on the planet if the kids aren’t mine.”

“So you think you can disregard all of his previous actions on Earth for the sake of playing house? What sort of—”

Tony grinned, shark-like, cutting him off. “We’re not asking permission, Nick. Since when do you expect either of us to do that? Bit late, anyway, given I already have him and three of his kids living with me.”

Loki continued. “Consider this meeting rather to be a warning. I have been reunited with my children after a separation of a thousand years. Should anything happen to change that, I assure you I will have very little reason to be so nice to your little world as I have been previously.”

“Funny, you say warning but I hear threat.”

“I fail to see much of a difference.”

Fury kept up his glare for another minute so they’d know he wasn’t amused, but they’d won and everyone in the room knew it. “I want a paternity test done now, and you will allow SHIELD to handle your medical care.”

“Yeah, sure,” Tony agreed. “Come on Lokes, Medical’s in the direction of the smell of antiseptic and misery.”

They were met by Coulson and a woman in scrubs and a neat ponytail whose nametag read ‘Dr. Patanjali, OB/GYN.’ She had the sort of no-nonsense posture most SHIELD medics acquired that said she wasn’t going to put up with either dramatics or intimidation from her patients, regardless of where they happened to fall on the scale of morality.

“You know, when the Director finally has an aneurysm and drags me down with him, it’s going to be your fault,” Coulson remarked. “Hello again, Loki.”

“Agent Coulson. It is good that you are well. You acquitted yourself most honorably.”

Coulson smiled tightly. “Thank you.”

Dr. Patanjali led them down the hallway deeper into medical, and Tony had to ask, “What’s SHIELD doing with an OB/GYN on hand?”

She smiled wryly at him. “Mostly providing testing for our female field agents and a second point of care for workaholic administrators. I wasn’t really expecting to make use of my obstetrician qualifications until that incident with the ovipositing aliens. In here please.”

Tony winced in sympathy. He’d been in the field for that one, back in Reed Richards’ early days when there’d been an ‘incident’ nearly every week. The guy had gotten better at least, and now only occasionally messed up spectacularly.

Loki flatly refused an invasive procedure, which meant he had to submit to having his blood drawn, and then Tony had his cheek swabbed. He made a face, mostly on principle.

“Do I get a lollipop for this?”

“No. But I’ll bring it up with the emergency team.”

“Oh, I like you,” Tony decided.

Dr. Patanjali frowned at them for a moment, turning from where she’d packaged up their samples, and then swabbed Loki too. It was kind of funny to watch. Then she shooed Tony and Coulson both out of the room for patient confidentiality reasons while she discussed the particulars of Loki’s pregnancy with him. Tony leaned against the wall outside and pulled out his phone, sending a message to JARVIS.

‘Keep track of what they do with Loki’s blood, will you?’

JARVIS’ usual ‘Of course, Sir’ came back just as Coulson fixed him with his authoritative Agent-face and demanded an explanation.

Tony gave him the abridged version, and then Dr. Patanjali stuck her head out of the door to say, “Mr. Stark, you can come back in now.”

Loki was sitting back, his shirt pushed up to his chest as Dr. Patanjali touched an ultrasound transducer to his abdomen, adjusting it a bit until she could get a clear image on the monitor.

“Oh. Wow.”

It looked like every other ultrasound image of a fetus he’d ever seen, a grainy black and white vaguely humanoid blob, except that there were two of them, and that these were _his_. He came to stand next to Loki, watching the monitor as Dr. Patanjali moved the transducer around, making various notes on a tablet as she worked.

Loki was also watching. “Midgardians do some truly interesting things with technology. There is nothing like this on Asgard, or Alfheim. Perhaps Vanaheim, where only a few have magic, but not that I have heard of.”

Tony made a vague noise in response, distracted.

Dr. Patanjali looked up at them. “Do you want to know the sex of the children?”

“No,” Loki said promptly.

“Well, now I’m dying of curiosity, but I’ll live.”

Loki gave him a look.

“What?”

“You also do some very strange things with your language.”

Tony couldn’t help but laugh. Dr. Patanjali made a few more notes, fiddled with a few things, and then she packed up the ultrasound device. Loki pulled his shirt down and slid off the exam table.

“I’m playing a lot of this by ear, given that I haven’t a clue about alien biology,” she told them, “but I’m going to go ahead and recommend you come in every three to four weeks for a routine checkup, and we’ll see how it goes.” Bending to retrieve something from the bottom of the cart the ultrasound was stationed on, she said, “Also, you may want to keep this.” She handed Tony a printed still of the ultrasound.

“Oh. Thank you.” Well, there was something he didn’t say sincerely very often.

She smiled at him. “You’re welcome.” To Loki she handed her business card. “Just call to set up your next appointment. The paternity results are normally available in about eight weeks.”

Loki nodded. “My thanks as well.” Wrapping one arm around Tony then, he transported them back into the Tower penthouse.

“Well, that was successful. Fury—”

Loki interrupted him by pushing him up against the nearest wall and kissing him breathless. It wasn’t that hard with both of them suddenly laughing.

“That,” Loki said, “was magnificent.”

Tony hummed in agreement, wrapping his arms around the god’s shoulders, still holding the print in one hand. “I do try to be.”

When they had devolved into catching their breath in the same air, Tony remembered, “Oh yeah, and I’ve got JARVIS keeping an eye on what they do with your blood. We don’t need any more super soldier attempts or anything.”

Loki nodded. “That is well.”

Tony grinned. “Speaking of, we should probably go rescue Cap from your kids.”

Loki grinned back. “Probably. Or they could wait five more minutes.”

 

Returning to the penthouse in the middle of the day, Tony was trying to decide if he was using the kids as an excuse to miss this latest meeting or if missing the meeting was the excuse for seeing the kids, or if it really even mattered. More importantly, did he care? When he stepped out of the elevator, though, the apartment was unusually empty. Even when the kids were having their after-lunch quiet meditation time, there was at least one person in the living area. Actually, for all that it was quiet, whatever magical meditation Loki’s kids were doing generally involved a lightshow as, Tony assumed, they made their magical auras or something visible. He’d have to get one of them to do that in the lab sometime. But the point was, none of them were doing that now. It wasn’t even quite lunchtime yet. Tony frowned, trying to quell the rising sense of unease. They could have all gone to a different floor.

“JARVIS, where’s Loki?”

“He is in the bathroom, Sir.” Okay, that was a little worrying. JARVIS was usually too polite to say that if someone was just taking a dump, and the AI had sounded…concerned.

“Thanks, J.” The door to the bathroom was closed, so Tony knocked. “Loki? It’s me.” There was the sound of something shifting within, and then sniffles. “Can I come in?” He waited a couple of moments, and then carefully opened the door anyway.

Loki was seated on the floor against the wall, his legs pulled up. He was wiping at his eyes as he glanced up at Tony, obviously trying to get himself back under control from crying. Closing the door most of the way behind himself, Tony sat next to him and put an arm around his shoulders, pulling Loki in. The Trickster tensed a bit in surprise, and then let his head rest on Tony’s shoulder.

“You wanna talk about it?”

Loki sighed wetly and after a moment said, “Fenrir was upset today because he realized that he would not see his friends again. I cannot… Even if we returned to Alfheim, the children he once knew would be gone, grown into adults with children of their own and a lifetime in between them and their playmate of a millennia past.”

Tony bit his lip and just held him. This was another of those things for which he couldn’t even hope to have a frame of reference for.

Loki sniffed and wiped at his face again with one hand. “I… It is difficult, for me. Fenrir and Jor, they have no memory of the years they were bound, apart from some dreams. They have fear, yes, from the day they were taken, and that I have addressed but otherwise I have tried to let them be as they were before.” Loki’s breath hitched and his voice cracked and wavered. “All I want is to never let them go.”

That prompted more crying, though he quieted quickly, already mostly cried out.

“For what it’s worth,” Tony told him, “I think you’re doing really well as a parent. And I think you’re allowed to need something for yourself. Kids are pretty smart, yours especially. If you explain it to them, they’ll understand.”

Loki made a little ‘mm’ noise of agreement.

Tony let the moment stretch, and then he squeezed Loki’s shoulder closer a little and said, “You realize our kids are probably going to be terrifyingly intelligent?”

A tiny thread of amusement made it into Loki’s voice when he responded, “Of course. It was one of the reasons I chose you to father them.”

“What, not my dashing good looks?” Tony cajoled.

“Those as well.”

“Where are Fenrir and Jor anyway? It’s pretty empty up here.”

Loki heaved a deep breath, calming somewhat. “They went downstairs with Sleipnir to play Scrabble.”

“That was fast.” Loki had been having the kids translate passages of Harry Potter back and forth between English and their respective languages, but Fenrir and Jormungandr had only just started _The Goblet of Fire_ and Sleipnir had been working with all three languages. Maybe four, Tony wasn’t sure. He knew a respectable number of languages himself, but his brain was far too calcified to learn multiple Elvish tongues.

“They will be at it a while. They took multiple tablets so that they could all have access to a dictionary simultaneously.”

Tony chuckled. “Does that mean we can move somewhere more comfortable than the bathroom floor?”

Loki nodded and allowed Tony to give him a hand up. He rattled around in the kitchen making a cup of tea, and then sat leaning against Tony on the couch to drink it. Groping for something to fill the silence, Tony’s brain noticed that Loki was drinking Irish Breakfast tea. So it wasn’t all space tea in his cupboards. Before that could make it out of his mouth, Loki spoke instead.

“Sleipnir was aware to some degree, though he has not physically aged.” He shrugged. “That will not matter when he comes of age, but…” Loki sighed. “He has always been withdrawn, for which I fear his childhood was too much like mine, but now…he needs more places to feel safe.”

“He seems to like the shooting range, if how long he can spend down there with Clint is any indication.”

Loki nodded. “It is rather harder to avoid Thor here than in the palace of Asgard, though.”

Tony considered. “What about the workshop? I would trust him to handle himself and not anything he shouldn’t, and he was interested in the machinery down there last time.”

Loki eyed him a little dubiously. “You would allow Sleipnir in your workshop?”

Tony didn’t let many people in his personal workshop. Pepper, Rhodey, Bruce, and Peter had open access. The rest of the Avengers had codes, but Tony could still lock them out if he didn’t feel like company, and they rarely visited anyway. He’d given them access there, not accommodation. It was still his private space, after all. The few times he’d dragged Loki into a lab to try to analyze his pretty much everything, they’d gone to one of the guest labs. He probably would have actually taken Loki to his own workshop, except that they’d still technically been enemies then and letting him into the place where he made gear and weaponry for the Avengers felt like an inappropriate acknowledgement of what exactly it was that they had going.

He grinned brightly. “Sure. Maybe I can entice him away from magic to the side of science.”

Reaching up with one hand, Loki turned his face so he could kiss Tony sincerely. Tony leaned in to peck him once again as he pulled back, deciding somewhere in the back of his head that tea wasn’t so bad when it came with the taste of Loki’s mouth.

“You ready to go downstairs and raid the communal kitchen for lunch?”

Loki smiled at him. “Yes.”

 

Coulson came by and ‘talked to’ Loki about his kids, which Tony knew meant interrogated, but both of them emerged from it still alive, so it must have gone alright. It turned out that Agent had something of a way with kids and managed to ingratiate himself with all three of Loki’s almost as fast as Thor had with Fenrir and Jor. It must have been all that Supernanny. He and Pepper joined forces in leaking the story to the press and consequently the general public, and with the two of them carefully controlling the whole thing it went about as smoothly as possible. Tony figured that if they ever wanted to take over the world together it would be done before anyone had even noticed. It also got him and all of the brood out of the house, which made Loki anxious, but the kids loved it even if Fenrir and Jor had to be told to maybe not transform in the middle of Central Park.

The Avengers got called out a couple of times, and Tony found some safety glasses and cleared an area in his workshop for Sleipnir. Then he went and cleared out most of the alcohol from his kitchen. It’d been functioning more like an actual kitchen lately than the bar he’d once used it as, but there was still quite a bit lying around. A good portion went down the drain, the vodka went to Natasha, and the expensive scotch that he couldn’t bring himself to throw out got locked into a secret stash. He gave JARVIS control of the key code and permission to lock him out until the next acceptable holiday. When he was plagued by cravings for the next few days and finally confessed to Loki what he’d done, the god dragged him into the bedroom and gave him what was possibly the best blowjob of his life. Which was a pretty great way to bolster his resolve, really. Loki’s pregnant belly pressing against him as they made out afterwards somehow only made it better.

He got JARVIS to compile the best resources and information on pregnancy and parenting. _What to Expect When You’re Expecting_ and _Fatherhood for Dummies_ and _So Your Co-parent is a Norse God_ and all that. Sleipnir met Peter, who was officially an intern at SI but in reality was more like Tony’s apprentice and a junior member of the Avengers due to secretly being Spiderman. Peter was entering college in the fall but the two of them hit it off, which shouldn’t have been quite so surprising what with Loki’s implication that Sleipnir was older than his body. Tony added some textbooks on math, computer coding, and physics to Sleipnir’s reading list, and in return got some really interesting data on the energy manipulation involved in doing magic and spent a good few days geeking out about it.

Loki went to see Dr. Patanjali, and he and Tony gradually worked out a routine. Barring emergencies or other events, Tony was there in the mornings and evenings, and they split lunch since Tony could handle making that. Surprisingly, his output in the workshop improved a bit as he was forced to prioritize tasks and focus on one at a time instead of bouncing between projects every time he got distracted under the guise of ‘multitasking.’ Also, it turned out that consistent meals and a regular sleep schedule worked wonders for his productivity. Who would have guessed? Weirdly, it also helped his insomnia, which wasn’t as terrible as it had been when he was actively avoiding sleeping for fear of constant nightmares, but was still occasionally a thing. The nightmares were also still occasionally a thing, but having someone there helped. Well, he’d known that one almost since he and Loki had started sleeping together.

All of this led to Tony walking into the penthouse one day around noon and thinking suddenly, ‘This is home.’ Sleipnir had spent the morning in the workshop practicing something magical and had left early, apparently drained and hungry but happy with his progress. He was seated cross-legged on the carpet, engrossed in his latest physics textbook and absently eating a sandwich and chips from a plate at his elbow. Fenrir and Jor were playing some sort of make-believe game that spilled from drawn-on pieces of paper to illusions they created in the air to the Iron Man and Loki knit figures a fan had sent to the Tower. Loki was sitting on the couch just watching, a soft smile on his face and one hand resting on the swell of his stomach, both seemingly subconsciously. Tony came and sat next to him, leaning in to brush a kiss across his mouth.

“You look happy.”

“I would be happier if you made lunch,” Loki teased lightly.

“That’s what I’m up here for, isn’t it?” Tony couldn’t help his smile back.

“Tony?” Sleipnir looked a little like he’d been waiting for them to be finished with their disgusting sappiness before he involved himself. “Can you explain this to me? I don’t understand this proof.”

“Yeah, sure. Let’s see it.”

Joining them on the couch, Sleipnir spread the textbook across both their laps, pointing out the passage in question.

“Oh, okay. How far are you through the calculus book? You get to sinusoidal functions yet?”

Tony hadn’t really liked school until he got to college, and even then he’d gotten through his undergrad as fast as possible before sticking around for a PhD or several. Besides the fact that he’d always been the baby in the class, he grasped concepts quickly, made connections faster than anybody else, and was left either chomping at the bit or incredibly bored. What finally hooked him was the challenge, the satisfaction of solving a problem no one else could. If he’d been left to his own devices, he’d have happily figured out everything he needed to know from first-hand experience. Loki’s kids, on the other hand, were exceptionally intelligent and loved learning just to learn. They had the motivation for it, too, and Tony figured that that must also be some sort of magic on Loki’s part.

“Yes—” Sleipnir cut himself off, reaching out to flick his fingers at the food he’d left on the table. There was a squeak and dark fingers jerked back from where they were reaching for his chips. Fenrir flopped out from underneath the coffee table, pouting at them upside down. Jormungandr was nowhere to be seen. “Go get your own, Fen,” Sleipnir told him, not unamused.

Fenrir gave them his best puppy dog eyes that didn’t involve turning into an actual canine. “But that’s not as fun.”

“Next time the both of you should not hide so abruptly,” Loki advised. “An extended set up will arouse less suspicion.” Those kids were going to be a menace when they got good enough to create illusory doubles of themselves the way Loki could.

Tony laughed, and slid the textbook over into Sleipnir’s lap. “Maybe after we feed your brothers, huh?”

Later, the five of them were gathered again in the kitchen to make dinner, the kids happily carrying on a conversation despite having spent pretty much all day together, and Loki looking equally happy to hear it. Tony had been surprised the first time Sleipnir had come over and Loki had immediately given him a knife and a task. Both of them had enjoyed spending time in the kitchens in their childhood, but while Tony had usually just watched and stuck his fingers in the cookie dough, Loki was actually a good cook and it turned out that he’d passed the skill down to his children. Apparently not only did cooking produce food, it was a good foundation for learning to work with potions, which was how Tony had come to understand that pretty much everything was educational when one was homeschooling kids. Loki also had a rule that anyone in the kitchen had to help. Despite that, most of the kids still ended up in the kitchen, and Tony would’ve felt left out otherwise.

“Rhodey banned me from cooking after I burned soup once,” he’d had to confess. “To be fair, I was doing my differential calculus homework at the same time.”

“You can trim the beans, then,” Loki had told him, amused.

Tony had by now graduated to full-fledged prep cook, and as his hands worked at peeling potatoes he had another revelation because it was apparently that kind of day. Behind the panic and terrifying uncertainty at his life suddenly being turned on his ear and every little thing being different and new, this was exactly what he wanted. Before he had done anything just for attention, before he’d decided that if he was going to get disapproval anyway he might as well have fun earning it, before he’d decided that he didn’t care, this had been exactly what he’d wanted. Well, not precisely the Norse god of mischief and his three, soon to be five, children and conversation that revolved around magic, whatever bits of Midgardian culture the kids had discovered that day, and the other members of the superhero commune they all lived in. But attention, respect, _affection_ from his parents. To feel like part of a household rather than another inhabitant of the family mansion. He was on the other side of the equation now, but somehow that didn’t really matter to the part of him that deep down was still five and looking for his Mommy and Daddy.

That night, curled up in their bed, he asked Loki, “I know it’s still kinda early, but did you have any names in mind?”

“I was considering Nari and Vali.”

Tony nodded, thinking. Halfway through the pregnancy, Loki was holding firm on not wanting to know the twins’ sexes, and he could imagine those names working well for either. They were good names. “Can I request middle names? Edwin and Ana. Well, Ana might be embarrassing if both of them are boys, but, it’s just—” He took a deep breath and plunged on, “Edwin Jarvis was my father’s butler and his wife Ana was our cook. They were the closest I had to real loving parents growing up. Obie doesn’t count since he tried to kill me.”

Wrapping his arms tighter around Tony, Loki kissed his forehead. “Of course.”

 

Loki spent more time sitting down as his belly grew, and more deliberation entered his movements, though they didn’t lose any grace. When he stood for long, he leaned subtly after a few minutes, or his hand would go to the small of his back. Tony spent more time with the kids after lunch to let Loki go lie down, and making dinner transitioned more into Loki directing his minions, in the form of Tony and his children, than them helping while he did most of the work. Not that he had ever really needed to, Tony found out. Given instructions, the kids were more than capable of making an entire meal themselves. It was not something Tony had ever done before.

He called Rhodey to see if the military would lend War Machine to the Avengers once the twins were born so he could go on paternity leave, and ended up agreeing to go out for a drink with him. Rhodey had known about the situation, but he dragged the entirety of the story out of him over greasy cheeseburgers and a beer, which was the only beer that night. Tony was proud of himself. And then an idea occurred to him that was possibly better. He went and bought Loki a present.

The god was stretched out sideways along the couch reading when it arrived, pillows stuffed between its arm and his back. Trying as much as possible to keep it out of Loki’s sight, Tony located an outlet to plug his present into, and then said, “Hey, sit up a bit?”

Bemused, Loki complied, and Tony slipped the hot pad between his back and the pillows, guiding Loki to sit back.

“Oh.” Loki tipped his head back against Tony’s stomach, smiling up at him. Tony’s hands landed on his shoulders, rubbing in light circles. “That is lovely. I hope you know I am never again moving.”

“That’s fine, babe. You want something to pee in?”

Maturely, Loki made a face at him, but both of them were laughing.

Meanwhile, Sleipnir had been getting ever more restive. He stopped using the elevators, choosing instead to teleport himself everywhere. Even when sitting still over his books, his foot would tap or his knee would bounce. He was spending less time in his room or only with his mother, but spent little prolonged time anywhere else.

One day Sleipnir surprised him in the lab, nervously asking, “Tony?”

Shutting off his soldering iron and spinning his chair around, he tried to look as open as possible. “What’s up?”

“Can I… May I call you Dad?”

Inwardly, Tony was gaping. He wasn’t sure how much of it was coming through on the outside, but he hoped it wasn’t too much.

Sleipnir fidgeted. “I never knew my biological father. Svadilfari was killed before I was born. So I never really…”

“I’d be honored,” he finally forced out of his mouth, and Sleipnir broke into a huge smile. “Can I hug you?” Sleipnir nodded, so Tony stood from his chair and pulled him in, and the teen returned it enthusiastically. “You know what dad jokes are, right?” he asked as they eventually pulled apart. “Does this mean I can start making them at you?”

“Oh please don’t. Peter says you’re cool.”

Tony laughed. “Fair enough. You sticking around down here for a while?”

“No, I just wanted to ask you, and… If you could see the pathways through the Realms, would you stay in one place?”

Tony raised his eyebrows. “At one point in my life, probably not. Right now, though, I’m pretty attached to what I have right here. But I think this is something you should talk to your mother about.”

Sleipnir nodded, chewing his lip.

“You know you’re always free to come and go from the workshop as much as you like, though, right? Just have some form of warning when you teleport in. Don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Dad.” With that, Sleipnir disappeared in a flicker of spring green light.

Tony didn’t get much work done the rest of that day.

A few days later he was returning home for lunch and found Sleipnir standing in front of Loki, who was seated sideways on the couch again. The Trickster had folded his son’s hands around something.

“Do not hesitate to use it. I would rather you visit often than find yourself in a situation you cannot get out of.” Sleipnir nodded, and Loki drew him down to kiss his forehead. “Be safe, my son.”

“I will. Thank you, Mother.”

Taking a step back, Sleipnir was gone.

“You let him go?” Tony asked, coming further into the room.

Loki’s mouth twisted in a wry smile. “Sleipnir has always been a restless child. He gets that from me, I fear. He will return eventually. He has his father’s love of building, and the things you make are like nothing else among the Realms.”

“Well, let’s hope eventually happens before I die, then.”

“It is more about not being confined to a single place again, but, Tony—” Loki reached for him, and Tony let him take both of his hands, drawing him down to perch on the edge of the couch by Loki’s hip. He found himself suddenly thankful for the arc reactor’s removal as his heart leapt into a higher gear. “I would have you see your children live out their lives. And…I would have you stand beside me. If you wish it, after the twins are born, I will gift you with a golden apple.”

For the second time in a week Tony had to take a moment to get his brain and mouth to form words again. “Is this your way of asking me to marry you?”

In a rare display, Loki lowered his eyes, looking down at their joined hands. “If you wish.”

_Holy_ shit. Tony scooted forwards to cradle Loki’s face and then he kissed him for a long time, Loki’s hands finding their way to Tony’s waist. They were way past the point of not acknowledging just what they had. “Yes, I want an apple. Yes, I want to marry you. I love you.”

Loki leaned their foreheads together, smiling irrepressibly and all for Tony. “Do you remember I told you your intelligence was one reason I wanted your children?”

“Yeah, and my good looks were another.”

“It was not entirely the truth. Those reasons, among others, were why I sought your bed in the first place, and had I only wanted a child, they would have been adequate. I did want, and I thought myself capable again, but the reason I chose that moment was because I realized I had fallen in love with you and I feared what it meant.”

“And now?”

“I am no longer afraid. I love you, Tony.”

Their kiss this time was interrupted by giggles and oohing. Both of them looked over to see Fenrir and Jor peeking around a corner.

“Come here, you two,” Loki said, a mischievous tilt in his expression.

As soon as they were close enough, he grabbed them and kissed both of them loudly on the cheek, making them squirm and whine playfully, “Mama!”

Loki laughed, but did not let them go. “Tony and I are going to be married.”

“Why?” Jor asked.

“Because we love each other and we want everyone to know,” Tony told him.

“That’s good,” Fenrir said seriously. “Do we have to call you Papa?”

“Only if you want to, kiddo.”

Fenrir nodded. “Are you going to make lunch now or are you going to keep kissing?”

Tony laughed, reaching out to muss Fenrir’s shaggy hair. “Yeah sure, I’ll make lunch. Whaddaya want?”

He got even less work done that day, but at the end of it he got to go to sleep with his fiancé, so it was hardly like he could bring himself to care.

 

Tony was in the kitchen with Fenrir and Jor a month later when the Avengers alert went off. He groaned. “JARVIS, what’s going on?”

“It appears to be Doombots, Sir.”

Shit. The team would need him for this one, if the Four didn’t have it handled. Doctor Doom was a menace, and far too crafty, and to top it all off, Tony couldn’t even complain about him adulterating perfectly good armor with magic anymore given that he himself was outnumbered in his own home in this respect. It didn’t even matter that he didn’t hate magic anymore, it was the principle of the thing. But Loki was asleep, Sleipnir was still out of the house, and every other available adult would be heading out into the field. Torn, Tony wondered if Pepper would possibly be willing—

Loki came down the stairs from the bedroom then, one hand on the railing and the other pushing through his hair. He looked disgruntled at being woken but said, “Go.”

Tony kissed him, and then rushed for the landing platform. “Thanks, babe.”

As he took off, tapping into the com channel, JARVIS informed him, “Sir wishes you to know that if you are injured he will make you change diapers for a week after the twins are born, Sir.”

Tony grinned. JARVIS was calling Loki ‘Sir.’ If that wasn’t approval for his engagement, he didn’t know what was. “Tell him I got it, J.”

He did have it, but they were still out in the field long into the night. By the time he made it back home Tony was running on autopilot and crashing from adrenaline. He vaguely registered Loki putting food in front of him, and then guiding him through a bath and into bed. Reaching out, he fell asleep to the humming glow of his children underneath his palm.

Tony spent the entirety of the next day after everyone involved had woken up again stuck in debriefs. He’d managed to capture one of the disabled bots, and both SHIELD and Richards wanted him to analyze it so they could better counteract Doom’s latest stealth technologies. Once, he would have gone straight to the lab to start working as soon as he could, but instead that evening Tony curled up on the couch at home with Loki and his kids. They’d finally gotten around to watching _Howl’s Moving Castle_ , after all.

Halfway through the movie Sleipnir appeared again, wearing a leather jacket over the Asgardian clothes he’d left in and a supremely confused expression on his face. “Mother, what did you do?”

Fenrir and Jor’s heads popped up from where they were engrossed in the movie, exclaiming happily, while Loki pushed himself up from the couch with a smile to hug his son. “Welcome home. Did you use your room as a reference point to attempt to travel here?”

Sleipnir nodded, still confused. Loki chuckled, leading him over to the kids’ hallway and having him stand on the other side of the threshold. Tony followed, curious.

“Step back this way, but do not travel across Yggdrasil,” Loki told him.

Sleipnir frowned, stepped, and disappeared. A moment later he reappeared and stepped across to join them.

“This hallway is only part of a larger house which is not anchored here,” Loki explained. “The seals merely allow for transport between the two points on Yggdrasil. By traveling relative to your room, you would have arrived in the rest of the house, which is perfectly correct but simply not where you meant to be.”

“Why not just anchor a new dimension here?” Sleipnir asked.

“Oh, many reasons. Midgard is a realm thin in both _eidr_ and suitable anchor points. This house was already established and I did not have sufficient power at the time to create another that would be quite so stable. Had I anchored something this substantial here, it would surely have attracted the notice of the few magical powers Midgard does have, and I am not particularly fond of any of them. Also, I needed a way to keep this one interested,” Loki finished wryly, wrapping an arm around Tony.

“You do that anyway, babe,” Tony told him, and Loki gave him a fond look that said ‘I know.’

“In any case, come,” Loki said, switching back to Sleipnir. “I will draw the seals for you tomorrow if you wish, and you can tell me about what you have seen in your travels. Have you eaten this evening?”

So Sleipnir joined them, good-naturedly following along with Jormungandr and Fenrir interrupting each other to explain what had happened in the movie so far, and eating a plate of leftovers.

In bed that night, Loki told him, “Not many have the power or skill to create a dimension such as the one my house occupies. Sleipnir’s room was the first, and then the one Fenrir and Jor share. After Hela…I expanded it into a place in which I could live indefinitely, if not exclusively. It became my refuge.”

Tony blinked, processing that. Loki had literally, physically—sorta—joined his home to Tony’s. “That…really is like _Howl’s Moving Castle_.”

“Hm, but I am not planning on giving my heart to anyone else.”

Obviously the thing to do with the warm feeling in his chest was to kiss his fiancé. “Wait, are you saying I’m old?”

“Oh, hush,” Loki laughed, kissing him back.

Sleipnir showed up in the workshop the next day and was immediately fascinated with the remnants of the Doombot Tony was taking apart. It did go much faster with someone to explain the magical parts to him. They quickly got a mock-up of the concealment generator running, with Sleipnir sustaining the magical aspects, and Tony tested out a few ideas for modification to the detection and neutralization devices he currently had available. With the added background on the magical theory, Tony was pretty confident that his upgrades would be more accurate through the next few generations of Doombots. He sent the information off to Richards and as much as he thought prudent to SHIELD. Then he walked Sleipnir through the process of reverse engineering the rest of the bot.

The teen frowned while they were trying to figure out how the main power core worked, becoming increasingly frustrated. “I don’t understand how this enchantment was created, or what function it was supposed to serve. The spellwork is confusing and tangled, and I’m not sure that parts of it even go anywhere. JARVIS? Can you ask Mother to come look at this?”

Loki arrived a couple of minutes later and leaned over the workbench with them. “Victor von Doom has always been particularly inelegant with his magic. Although I suppose that is the product of not having had a proper education. Here.” One hand on Sleipnir’s shoulder, Loki touched the power core, spring green sparks skipping over the circuitry. The whole unit and some of the wiring leading out from it fell apart.

“Well, that’s just shoddy engineering,” Tony declared.

That led to a discussion on the integration of magic and technology, and how it might best be achieved without causing decay to either of them. Sleipnir took to the problem enthusiastically, and Loki and Tony shared a look, both of them proud.

‘Did I tell you he asked to call me Dad?’ he wrote on the display table, sliding it over to where Loki was sitting.

‘You did. I’m glad,’ Loki sent back.

Eventually Loki went back upstairs, leaving Sleipnir to experiment with modifying Doom’s spells and occasionally ask Tony for advice on changing the mechanics.

“Promise you won’t tell Doom any of this,” Tony told him, “or, you know, go and become evil yourself. My job’s hard enough already.”

Sleipnir smiled and rolled his eyes a bit. “Of course not, Dad.” He already had the sarcastic intonation perfected.

“Oh good. You wanna build your own robot, then?”

 

“Hey, Loki?”

“Hmm?” Sleepily, the god turned towards him. The lights were out in their room, but Tony was wide awake. It wasn’t his usual insomnia, though.

“What if I’m a bad parent?”

“Why are you worrying over such a thing when you are already doing well with my children?”

“They still go to you though when they’re upset or angry or in trouble or anything serious. I mean for the twins. I’d never hit a kid, and I’m not drinking anymore, but what about all that other stuff, the little things? They say victims of abuse are more likely to abuse their own kids. What if I end up doing something bad and don’t even realize it because that’s what I grew up with and I don’t know any different?”

“Tony.” Finding his hand under the covers, Loki pressed it to his belly. The sensation of his children’s lives that existed somewhere between visual-auditory-tactile still took his breath away. “Do you recall how you felt the first time I showed you this?”

“Yeah.” Scooting closer, Tony put his head on the same pillow Loki was using, nose to nose in the dark. “Still feels that way, honestly.” He rubbed his thumb over Loki’s skin. “Amazing, and a little terrifying. Awesome in the original sense of the word. How can I love people I’ve never met, who aren’t even…” He trailed off, unsure of how to explain.

“Never forget that feeling,” Loki murmured. “Remember always your love for our children, and make certain that they never doubt it. You will make mistakes, and they may or may not be the same as your father’s, but the worst mistake of all would be not to admit your wrongs and work to correct them. You must remember also that you are not alone in this. You shall always have me. Do not forget that, either.”

Closing the distance between them, Tony curled as best as he could around his fiancé and their unborn children. “Thanks, Loki.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the twins!

They were in the middle of making breakfast when Loki suddenly grabbed Tony’s arm, clutching at the counter with his other hand. “Tony, call Doctor Patanjali. Now.”

Oh. _Oh_. _Fuck_ — “JARVIS?”

“Doing so now, Sir.”

He turned off the stove, disregarding the eggs still on it. Loki disappeared back upstairs.

Fenrir and Jor were watching with wide eyes, and Tony told them, “Go down to the common floor. I’ll bet you can get Steve to make you waffles.”

He waited until they were in the elevator, and then followed Loki upstairs. Sleipnir was out of the house again. He managed to get the protective covering they’d bought onto the bed and help Loki lie down, and then Loki grabbed onto his hand again and Tony sat. He was pretty sure he blocked out most of the birth, caught up in what felt like being slowly run over by a train as he processed the realization that his children were actually really being born today right now. He did register Dr. Patanjali’s arrival, which might have done more to comfort him than Loki, and the fact that the whole thing seemed to go smoothly and relatively very quickly. He wasn’t sure if that was due to luck, or magic, or it being Loki’s fourth birth, or if it was an Asgardian thing—but none of that mattered when his child, _his daughter_ , was placed in his arms.

He was vaguely aware of Dr. Patanjali cleaning up around them afterwards, but this time for entirely different reasons as he stared entranced at his daughter. Loki shifted to sit up a bit against the headboard, cradling their son. He leaned his head against Tony’s shoulder, and Tony pressed a kiss to his sweaty hair and then to Loki’s mouth when he looked up. The god tugged at his shirt, which promptly disappeared, and Loki smirked tiredly, his magic evidently back. Tony very quickly decided that he liked the feeling of new baby skin against his own. The babies and Loki were swathed in blankets which ended up also extending to Tony, and somewhere in there they switched children. The twins were beautiful, in a newborn baby sort of way, with wisps of fine blond hair and mismatched eyes in green and brown, although on opposite sides from each other. Tony wanted to keep holding them and breathing in their baby smell for the next twenty-four hours, at least.

Reluctantly, he had to relinquish his son to fill out an Acknowledgement of Paternity, since he and Loki weren’t married quite yet, and then took a look at their birth certificates. Nari Ana Lokisdottir-Stark, born November 19 at 9:04 a.m. and Vali Edwin Lokison-Stark, born at 9:27. They’d agreed that when their children were taken off-world, they’d switch the order of their last names. Tony had been not-so-secretly thrilled that this was a consideration he needed to have about them.

“Four names each might be more grandiose than even mine,” Tony commented, seeing his own ‘Anthony Edward Stark’ listed under ‘Father.’

“Yours would be the least grandiose had all of my titles been included,” Loki assured him. His was given just as ‘Loki Laufeyson.’ “They will grow into them.”

Dr. Patanjali packed up her things, leaving them with a box containing the twins’ placentas and umbilical cords, and another with some supplies. Then she left with one last, “Congratulations” to them both.

Loki’s chest had softened into small breasts over the last trimester at the same time as his body had been transitioning in preparation for the birth, and now he arranged the twins so they could both suckle. They fell asleep quickly afterwards, and then Tony got them all to himself while Loki went to take a bath. They had a blissful few hours with just the four of them, cuddled together in the middle of the bed, before JARVIS finally interrupted their reverie with a polite chime.

“Sirs, Fenrir and Jormungandr are asking if they might see their new siblings. Shall I send them up?”

They shared a silent look, resigned to breaking their peaceful bubble. “Please do, JARVIS.”

“Very well. Also, if I might extend my own congratulations.”

“Thanks, J.”

Excited footsteps were soon audible as Fenrir and Jor came running up the stairs, but they slowed when they reached the top, peering hesitantly around the door until Loki beckoned them over with a smile. Both of the boys clambered onto the bed to meet their new siblings and got to very carefully hold them. Steve had quietly followed Fenrir and Jor in, and he came to stand at the edge of the bed as well.

“Congratulations, you two,” he said. “They look lovely.”

Fenrir had shifted into one of his smaller wolf-forms, crouching low to nose gently at the babies until Nari got a fistful of his fur and he shifted back, looking hurt. “Mama, are Nari and Vali going to be shape-changers?”

“No, but they do have magic.”

“Aw, I wanted another wolf to play with.”

“They’ll be too little for you to play with for a while, Fenrir. But you did get another sister.”

“That’s true.”

“The rest of the team wants to come up too,” Steve told them. “Thor especially.”

Loki sighed knowingly. “I suppose they can be allowed in after I have eaten something,” he conceded.

“I’ll make sure they don’t all come up at once. Oh, Tony, I called Rhodes. He says he’ll be here in a couple of days but they only gave him four weeks.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Stingy. Thanks, Steve.”

They all moved into the kitchen then so Loki and Tony could eat, and then Nari and Vali decided they were also hungry, again. Steve left at that point, a little pink around the ears, to start sending up everyone else. Thor was the first to arrive, predictably, grinning hugely. The twins were dwarfed in his arms, but he was nothing but gentle with them. The rest of the team trickled in and out after Thor left, all of them bearing gifts or offers of help of some kind, Steve and Thor included.

“You didn’t have a baby shower,” Natasha told them as she deposited her extra-large package of Pampers on the table, “so we’re giving stuff to you now.”

Pepper arrived that evening still in her business suit. She kissed Tony’s cheek and told him they were beautiful. “I’ll keep you out of meetings and with minimal paperwork for the next sixteen weeks. Standard SI paternity leave, if you think you can stay out of the workshop for that long.”

“Thanks, Pep.”

Hela and Sleipnir both arrived separately the next day. Hela held both Nari and Vali, and beamed when she saw their eyes. She hugged her father and then to Tony’s surprise she hugged him too. Sleipnir was nervous and a little awkward around his new siblings, obviously not entirely comfortable with babies. When he suggested tentatively that he could stay out of the Tower for a while, Loki firmly disabused him of that notion.

“You will always have a place here, Sleipnir, and I will always have time for you. You are my eldest son and nothing can replace you.”

Sleipnir hugged his mother tightly and relaxed after that, staying the night and the morning with them before returning to Vanaheim, where he’d found some interesting items that might be relevant to his magical-tech project.

 

It had been Tony’s turn to put the twins to bed that night. The nursery Loki had set up had two very different looking cradles, one a sturdy Asgardian design and the other Elvish, made of what looked like wicker. The mobile Clint had made for them hung from the former, while the latter came with a handful of baubles designed to be suspended with magic. There was also a large comfortable armchair, a chest of various toys and books, and a changing table. Tony was quickly becoming an expert diaper-changer. The room had big windows that could show either the New York skyline as it would be seen had the room actually been located where it was relative to the rest of the penthouse, or a garden filled with various exotic plants from around the Nine Realms which must have been on the outside of Loki’s house. The walls were very nearly soundproof, as a benefit of being part of a magically-constructed house Tony supposed, so the other kids didn’t have to suffer being woken in the middle of the night by restless infants. He and Loki were not so lucky on that front, and Loki had set up an auditory link between the nursery and the master bedroom, like a magical baby monitor, since JARVIS didn’t extend across dimensional planes.

Walking back into their bedroom, Tony found Loki sitting on their bed staring forlornly out the windows that made up one whole wall of the room. He had his arms wrapped around his middle, looking like he’d just…stopped in whatever he’d been doing. He didn’t turn when Tony came in.

“Loki?” Rounding the bed, Tony sat next to him, putting his arms around his fiancé and threading his fingers through the backs of Loki’s. “Babe, you okay?”

“No,” Loki admitted, “but that is to be expected.”

Tony frowned. “What’s wrong?”

Loki sighed. “I carried two lives within me for nine months, aware of their presence at all times. Now I can no longer feel them.” He shrugged slightly. “With the return of my magic to my use, I feel more myself, and yet also…less.”

He set his chin on Loki’s shoulder, and the god tipped his head to rest on top of Tony’s. After a moment, Loki said quietly, “It was the worst after Sleipnir. I think if I had not had to care for him, I would not have continued. I always felt things more deeply than others, and it was the realization that my numbness did not frighten me that finally drove me back to the court in Asgard.”

Tony rocked him a little. “Well, Thor’s still here, dunno if that helps. You’ve got your kids, and there’s the rest of the crazy people that live in this Tower. And you’ve got me.”

Loki unwound his arms from himself to wrap them around Tony. “Yes. I do.”

 

The thing was, Tony had said yes to functional immortality and to marrying Loki, he’d been actually living with the Trickster and his three children for almost nine months, and he’d signed on to raising both of their children together, but he wasn’t absolutely one-hundred percent sure about any of it until the day he woke up to early morning light and Loki’s arms around him, the god grumpily turning his face into Tony’s neck because it’d been his turn to get up in the middle of the night with Nari and Vali, and said, “Go back to sleep, babe. I’ll handle breakfast.”

 

A month after Nari and Vali were born, Tony was back in the workshop, but only because Clint had damaged his field ears on the last Avengers mission and they needed to be fixed. Fenrir came in before he was even finished, tugging at his shirt and saying, “Mama says you’re watching the twins now and he’ll be back soon.”

Tony swiveled around to face him, confused. “Where’d he go?”

Fenrir shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Well, I guess I should go watch the twins, then.” Leaving Clint’s hearing aids, Tony led him back into the elevator.

Fenrir frowned. “I could try to show you when Mama left.”

“You can do that?”

The boy nodded. “Illusions are easier if it’s something you remember.”

“Okay, then, why don’t you give it a shot?”

Fenrir led him to the door of the nursery and took his hand. Tony’s vision went wavery, indistinct around the edges in the way of a memory where such things were irrelevant. Loki appeared in front of him and Tony had a moment of vertigo as he adjusted to looking up at Loki’s back from the perspective of a ten year-old following behind him. Memory-Loki took two steps into the nursery and then stopped. Following his gaze, Tony saw an unfamiliar chest sitting in the corner of the room. It was made of light wood with gold fittings, obviously of a fine quality, and carved with what looked like two birds on the front, although the details were blurry. Obviously Fenrir hadn’t paid very close attention to it.

Turning, Memory-Loki’s face was tight with suppressed fury as he said, “Fenrir, go find Tony and tell him to watch Nari and Vali. I will return soon.”

There was a flash of emerald light, and Tony thought he caught sight of leather armor and golden horns before the image froze like a bad video. The vertigo was back as Tony looked away from the memory and down at the child holding his hand.

“Um,” Fenrir frowned, “there was a sound too. Something like…”

Tony looked back as the memory resumed, the green light going out and taking Loki with it, accompanied by the crackle of ice and the roar of fire. The chest had disappeared as well. The memory faded then and Fenrir let go of his hand.

“Huh,” was all Tony had at the moment. “Well, then. Doesn’t really tell me where Loki’s gone, but that’s a pretty useful skill.”

Vali was fussy, which was probably why Loki had been coming into the nursery in the first place. Scooping him up, Tony checked his diaper. It wasn’t poopy, so that wasn’t it. Tony bounced him a bit, rocking back and forth and humming snatches of ‘Iron Man.’ Regardless of what Loki said, Tony was going to make sure his kids had an appreciation for the music of his youth, and also for their dad’s super cool suit of armor. Vali didn’t escalate into full-on crying, but neither did he settle completely.

“Are you hungry, is that it?” Tony murmured, still rocking. “You wanna eat? Mommy’s not here right now, though, so we’re both out of luck, ’cause my body doesn’t work like that.” For whatever magical reasons, Loki didn’t pump, and he refused to feed the twins any sort of formula. “You’re just gonna have to wait until Mommy comes back from wherever he’s gone. How about a different song, huh?”

Tony switched to humming ‘Shoot to Thrill,’ which was coincidentally when Loki reappeared, his armor fading off of him. He ran a hand through his hair, pulling it back around his face from where it had been slicked back under his helmet. The remaining anger also dissipated from his frame as he came to kiss Tony and take Vali from his arms.

“You wanna tell me what that was about, babe?” Tony asked.

Loki sighed, dropping into his armchair. “Odin is a fool.” He started pulling at the laces of his tunic so he could nurse Vali.

Fenrir looked over from where he was hanging over the side of Nari’s cradle, entertaining her with illusory wolves chasing each other through the air. “Like Uncle Thor is a fool?”

“Well, Thor _is_ Odin’s son. Both of them give far too little thought to an idea once it has entered their heads, but Thor is simply rash in his anger and unused to questioning. Odin is blind to his faults because he has power and believes himself to be wise.”

“Fenrir showed me what happened,” Tony said. “What was that chest? I assume you took it back to Asgard.”

Loki nodded. “Odin thinks he can win back some favor with me by sending gifts for the twins. I suppose it is lucky he thought enough to choose a chest with Huginn and Muninn on it rather than one of his _other_ emblems.” Meaning Sleipnir. Tony winced. “I told him in no uncertain terms that neither I nor my children would henceforth have anything to do with him or with Asgard. I may have also made it clear just how much power I have gained over the last thousand years, and that if I wished I might be able to resist him even with the power granted him by Gungnir.”

Tony raised his eyebrows. “I knew you were always toying with us, but wow.”

“Will we still get to see Grandmother?” Fenrir wanted to know.

“I’m sure you will,” Loki assured him.

In fact, Frigga visited them the next day, beaming down to their balcony via Bifrost. Loki opened the door for her, and she embraced him before coming further into the penthouse. Tony didn’t miss the appraising look she cast over his stone, glass, and chrome décor. But she turned to Loki and said, “It seems I must apologize for my husband.”

Loki’s mouth tightened and she sighed. “It was I who told him you had birthed your twins. I tried to dissuade him from action, but you and Thor have always stood beneath his right eye. I can only hope that my own gift can make up for his ill-considered one.”

Tony had come around to where they stood, and now Frigga turned to him, swirling her hands. “Anthony Stark of Midgard, I offer this to you of my own free will and with my blessing.” She presented him with a golden apple, offering it to him with both hands. Some residual sense of reverence made Tony take it the same way.

Then Frigga produced another apple and offered it to Loki, saying, “This one is for you, Loki Friggason. It will grow. Take good care of it.”

Loki reached out to hold the apple but did not quite take it from her, stunned. “Why are you gifting me with this? Idunn has never trusted another with the growth of her apples.”

“Yes, but she was more likely to make allowances for some of us, who have not spent the last two thousand years making mischief.” Frigga’s smile as she said it was light though, and clearly related to Loki’s own. “I trust you to guard them well. You have a growing family.”

Loki finally took the apple, disappearing it quickly to hug his mother. “My thanks,” came out a bit muffled, but no less fervent.

“You are welcome,” she said with a smile as they parted. “And now, I would like to meet my newest grandchildren.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Fenrir and Jor need friends their own age,” Loki sighed.

They were getting ready for bed, which was when it seemed most of their conversations happened these days. It’d been a year, more or less, since Loki had moved in with him, and they’d just celebrated the boys’ birthdays. Both Hela and Frigga had been in attendance, as well as all of the Avengers. Sleipnir was home, and he, Peter, and Johnny Storm had formed their own little separate group within the party. Fenrir and Jor had seemed happy enough, but Loki was right that aside from the twins, now six months old, they were the youngest there.

“Well, most kids their age are in school, or some sort of activity like a sports program or something. We could try that, or find a homeschool network.”

Even as Tony said it, he knew that neither of those would work. They might not have the name, but Fenrir and Jor were still Stark kids, and on top of that they were Avengers kids. They’d be targets for anyone wanting to get at him, or the team, or even Loki. Hell, all it would take would be a couple of reports of a giant wolf in some Queens neighborhood and they’d attract anti-mutant types. Even if the kids could defend themselves against regular humans with some prejudice, not everyone with powers was on the side of the heroes, and one year did not erase a thousand. Still, they looked into it over the next few days.

Finally Tony suggested, “We could try Xavier’s. They might be willing to work something out.”

A couple weeks later they were walking into the mansion of the Xavier Institute, both of them wearing suits and having arrived via teleportation. Tony was torn between getting Loki to explain how he did that in detail so he could try to replicate it, and peeling him out of his clothing. He didn’t think he’d seen Loki in an Earth-style suit since that time in Stuttgart, always in the leather when out making visible mischief, and Tony was reminded of exactly how hot his fiancé was. Nari and Vali were mostly sleeping through the night by now, so he could theoretically get away with it, too. All of that would have to wait until after they’d talked to Professor X, though.

“I understand you’re considering our school for your children,” Xavier said after they’d exchanged introductions and pleasantries, and settled on either side of the professor’s desk. “I must say this is a bit of an unusual situation for us, though by all means not an unwelcome one. Too many of our students come to us from parents who no longer know how to deal with their children.”

“Yes, well, I have no desire to restrict my children’s use of their abilities.”

“Most of what we do here is teach our students to control and utilize their gifts. For those over fifteen, this includes working with a team to train as junior X-Men. Is this something you’re wanting your children to participate in?”

“No. Jormungandr and Fenrir’s magic can be unruly, but both of them normally have excellent control for children of their age. I will retain authority over their lessons in magic, but they need to socialize with children who possess abilities similar to theirs in a place where they will not face judgement for it. They have meditation techniques and basic spells that they may practice during those times in the day.” Loki paused briefly before deciding, “I will have to consider your training teams further once they reach that age.”

Xavier nodded. “I’m sure we can work with that. We are a boarding school,” he brought up a bit hesitantly.

Loki shrugged elegantly. “Distance is of little matter when one can travel by magic. I wish to keep my children at home.” He said it with a coolness that made Tony want to hug him, but he refrained.

The Professor smiled. “Again, an unusual situation for us, but one that is welcome.”

The rest was details, and paperwork, parts of which Tony was actually required for as the one with actual Earth citizenship and a lot of money, and finally a promise to bring Fenrir and Jor before the start of the fall term so that they could decide for themselves. And then they were walking back out of the mansion, Loki’s fingers twining with his before he teleported them both back to the Tower.

 

“Mama, how do you know you’re a boy?”

Loki looked over to where Jormungandr had abruptly stopped in his and Fenrir’s play with Nari. “Because I feel that I am.”

Jor frowned. “But the other day at school Carter and Sammy said that only girls can have babies, and you had all of us, except for Hela.”

“Hm. Would you like me to tell you a story?” Jor nodded, getting to his feet and sitting next to his mother. “You as well, Fenrir, Sleipnir.”

Fenrir came to a stop where he was bounding along as a wolf, getting Nari to squeal with laughter and toddle after him, shifting back. She finally collided with him, delightedly exclaiming, “Fen!” at her unexpected prize. He scooped her up, joining Loki on the couch and setting her on his lap. Sleipnir came over as well from his book.

“A very long time ago,” Loki started, “when Odin Allfather’s grandfather Buri was still a child younger than all of you, the Aesir looked at the bodies of the people around them and determined they could be sorted into two categories.” As he so often did when telling stories, Loki illustrated his words with illusions, figures of a man and a woman appearing in the air before him. It made Tony’s rendition of _The Very Hungry Caterpillar_ look positively boring. He listened in from where he had Vali. “They thought this to be a very useful distinction and therefore the truth.”

“But it’s not?” Jor asked, looking back at him.

“No.” The image of the man and the woman became further apart from each other, and more figures started filling in between them. “In truth, there are very many people who are somewhere in between, and very many ways to be in between.” Loki highlighted one image after another as he spoke: “Sometimes this involves a person’s body,” was accompanied by a figure with both male and female characteristics; “or their mind,” had an image of a female body with the symbol for male imposed upon their head; and, “or their magic,” showed a figure that shifted between the two. “Sometimes it involves a combination of these. Sometimes it is visible to other people, or only to the individual, or sometimes not at all.

“The Jotnar, and the Fae, and some of the peoples of Midgard know this truth.” The simple faceless figures were replaced by specific depictions. “On Jotunheim and some places on Alfheim, it is just as common to be in between than on either side, and in those places they know that each person may determine for themselves what gender they might be. However, wherever the Aesir went on Asgard and Vanaheim, and in the places they visited on Midgard and Svartalfheim, they encountered few people who were in between, or else they did not care to see them as they were. And so they continued to believe that there could only be two, and defined everyone in this way.” Each of the Realms Loki had mentioned rotated slowly in the air, placed among the branches of Yggdrasil.

“That…doesn’t sound very nice to the people who are in between.”

“No, it is not. Asgard fought a very long war with Jotunheim, and one of the reasons for it was that the Jotnar were different, and the Aesir feared what they did not understand.”

“But that’s stupid!” Jor burst out. “Why didn’t they just learn about the Jotnar?”

Loki sighed. “Because the Aesir believe that to display courage is only to eliminate the source of one’s fear, rather than to try to do away with the fear itself through knowledge. I was born at the very end of this war, and the mother who carried me was Laufey, King of Jotunheim.” An image of a large blue man with dark markings and red eyes appeared in place of the planets. Tony supposed it must be Laufey, but given Loki and Hela’s appearances, he wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting. “Like him, my body is somewhere in between, but in my mind I am male. Partly this is because I was raised on Asgard and was told that it was what I must be, but mostly it is because I believe it. It is up to each of you to determine what you believe, and who you truly are.”

Loki’s illusions faded out, and Fenrir slid off the couch, taking Nari with him. Sleipnir too went back to his book, but Jormungandr stayed, frowning. After a few moments of this, Loki reached out to turn his face up, asking gently, “What are you thinking?”

“What if…what if I don’t feel like a boy or a girl, but also not in-between either? I don’t think I feel like anything, just…just me.”

“That is fine, Jormungandr. You do not have to be anything.”

Jor nodded, still frowning. “But what about when I get older? My—my body is male, but I don’t _want_ a body like that. If I was a normal shapeshifter I could just change it however I wanted,” they said petulantly.

“That might be true,” Loki allowed, “but this is your first and therefore primary form, which would serve as anchor for your sense of self should your shape be more fluid. If you changed to look how you wanted, you would have to work very hard to make it not simply a transformation but your true self. Do you understand?”

Jor nodded unhappily.

“That said, do you remember where your ability to change your shape and to work magic comes from?”

“My will,” they responded.

Loki nodded. “And your will comes from your identity. If you are absolutely certain about who you are and what you want, I am sure there will be a way for you to change your body—both of them, perhaps, if you want—to match. When your school is on break this summer, do you want me to take you back to Alfheim to learn more?”

Jor’s face lit up and they threw themself into their mother’s embrace. “Yes! Thank you, Mama!”

“You are welcome, Jormungandr.”

They plopped back down to sitting on the couch. “But I still don’t want to be a boy before then.”

“Then you are simply my child. What do you think of Lokiskind?”

They beamed. “I like it.”

“You know you’ve completely ruined your reputation for me with that display of wisdom,” Tony told Loki that night.

“Did I not already do that when I asked you to marry me?”

Tony groaned, rolling over to flop an arm across his chest. “Don’t remind me of that. Nat’s been pestering me for details on the planning.”

“Have you considered simply telling her we are already married?” Loki sounded amused, and Tony opened one eye to glare at him resentfully.

“I’d rather not risk bodily harm, thanks.”

They’d quietly filled out the application and license in the midst of doing all sorts of other paperwork. Some sort of official Earth recognition for Loki was needed for their marriage to be legally viable in the first place, and while they were at it they’d done the same for the kids too, although the government would have had a hell of a time even trying to deport any of them. Once that ordeal was done, they’d figured there wasn’t much of a point in losing their bureaucratic momentum by waiting. Happy had been their witness, and their engagement rings were simple enough to become their wedding bands. They’d gone to City Hall, two trips among several others, and no one else was any wiser. Having long had his dirty laundry and relationship status dramatized for public spectacle, and gotten used to it, Tony decided that he much preferred it like this. Currently they were still in the process of him officially adopting Fenrir and Jor.

“Frigga also would be disappointed if we did not have a ceremony.”

Tony heaved a put-upon sigh, lifting his head. “Well, I _suppose_ I can give up my scandalous tabloid playboy image for being married with kids, since, y’know, I like you so much.”

Loki snorted. “I should hope that you do, _husband_.”

He grinned. “Shut up, _husband_.”

 

Fenrir and Jor were staying at the Institute for a sleepover and somebody’s birthday party. Steve had the twins for the night, so Tony and Loki could have a proper date. Sleipnir was out of the house again, or so they’d thought, until there were exclamations of, “ _Mother!_ ” and, “Tony!”

They startled apart to find Sleipnir and Peter standing in the penthouse where they had not been before, both looking disgusted and a little scandalized.

“Hey, if someday you decide to get married, you too will want to kiss your partner of choice,” Tony informed them.

“Yeah, but should you really be making out on the couch like teenagers?” Peter asked. “I don’t need to see that from my boss.”

“Then you shouldn’t be teleporting in here on a date night. Also, I would like to point out that age is just a number.” He got eye-rolls from them both.

“Anyway,” Sleipnir interjected, “may I take Peter to see the other half of my project?” He’d been constructing machinery and magical systems for a robot separately, to see if he could integrate the independent wholes into a single product in which the two wouldn’t excessively stress each other. The magical construct was being built and stored in Loki’s house. “I promise we’ll only go into the study.” Loki had planted his golden apple in a small garden outside of the house, where it was now a gangly sapling. Anyone other than family was strictly forbidden from even knowing about it.

Loki nodded. “Be careful.”

The teens quickly disappeared into the rest of the house.

Tony made himself comfortable lying half on top of Loki. “You think they’re dating? I don’t think I’m ready for dating. I don’t need that kind of drama yet.”

Loki gave him a look that clearly said, ‘Then why would you ask such a foolish question?’

Tony thought about it for a moment. “Never mind, they’re saying Spiderman’s been seen hanging around with Deadpool. Apparently the Merc with a Mouth is willing to reform, but only for our Webhead’s lovely charms. …Although that could just lead to even more drama.”

They went back to watching the movie that JARVIS had helpfully paused for them when they’d gotten distracted. Loki’s fingers teased under Tony’s shirt, playing absently across his skin. When they dipped underneath the waistband of his slacks, Tony looked up, sliding his own hands over Loki’s chest with a salacious half-smile.

“So we _could_ stay here and keep pretending to watch this movie until they get back like responsible, respectable adults, _or_ we could take this into the bedroom where we’d be uninterrupted. What do you think?”

In response Loki slid his hand all the way into Tony’s pants to cup his ass. “I do rather like the sound of that latter option.”

Tony let his smile stretch into a full-out grin, pressing his hips down. “Good, ‘cause that’s the one I would’ve picked too.”

 

Tony stared down at the newspaper someone had left on his kitchen counter, Pepper probably. At the top of the page was a picture, in color, of himself and Loki returning from the end of the latest battle a week ago. Absently, he spared a moment to hope the photographer had been using a really good telephoto before he went back to staring. The combined might of the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and various other individuals had just defeated Thanos and his army for good, and he and Loki were banged up, sweaty, and exhausted. Loki’s armor was torn and bloodied, Tony’s dented and barely functional. On his left side, not visible in the picture, he was missing a gauntlet. Loki had lost his helmet. Behind them, Fenrir, considerably smaller than he’d been during the fighting but still the size of a large SUV, had dirt and blood matted into his fur as well as scattered bits of metal and glass. The three of them were walking in from the left side of the frame.

On the right side of the picture was Sleipnir, newly immortal, holding his bow with his quiver slung on his back, Jormungandr next to him with a dagger on their hip. The two had stayed behind to protect the Tower and the twins, and now that it was finally over Sleipnir had taken them to meet those returning from the field, unable to wait any longer. Nari and Vali, five years old now and already so big, had run ahead, and in the picture Loki had already swung their daughter into his arms. Tony was caught with the Iron Man armor in the middle of folding back as best it still could from around him as he stepped forward, reaching out to do the same for Vali. At the time he’d had a broken rib, numerous bruises and lacerations, and he’d barely been able to make a landing and stay on his feet after, but the expression on his face was the happiest he’d ever seen on himself.

All seven of them were there in that picture, together and happy and safe and a family.

“JARVIS,” Tony said quietly, not wanting to disturb the peace of his sleeping household just yet, “find a picture frame for me.”

**Author's Note:**

> :')
> 
> flail with me on [Tumblr](http://yumekuimono.tumblr.com)


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